BLEACHed
by Kasek
Summary: Things didn't go as expected for Naruto at the Valley of the End. Now, he has to deal with something that may even be worse than his life was... his afterlife. Naruto BLEACH crossover.
1. Chapter 1

**Kasek:** Yo! It's been a while, hasn't it? Sorry it's been so long since my last update... I just haven't had the ability to write lately. However, I seem to have gotten that ability back, so I'm trying my best to make a comeback! Starting with this... To me, this feels like it's at a much higher level than any of my other works, and I'm hoping your reviews will reflect that. I don't think I've seen any other BLEACH crossovers that are taking quite the same approach as I am, so I also hope it gives a lot of readers a renewed faith in crossovers. I know I'm using the same entrance that some other authors are using, but it seems like the best place to start. And I sincerely hope that the readers will forgive me for killing off the characters that I do- though I'm not too worried about some of them, I am going to catch some flak about it anyways...

Anyways, I hope that you all are able to enjoy this! Oh, and DON'T flame me if I mess up the honorifics- if anything, you ought to help me with them...

**Disc:****I do not own the rights to Naruto, nor do I own the rights to BLEACH.**

* * *

Sasuke groaned as he awoke. He immediately knew something was wrong- although it was obvious he was still in the Valley of the End, he felt uninjured. In fact, his clothes were unblemished, minus one small modification that seemed to have been made while he was knocked out during his duel with Naruto- there was an extremely long chain attached to his back that seemed to go on for infinity, and a much smaller chain attached to his chest, that was about ten feet long. Merely touching it burned him, so he decided it best to leave it alone for the moment. 

Looking around, he saw a very surprising sight- there were two Narutos laying on the ground not far from him. One was obviously very injured, with a long, broken chain. The other was as unblemished as Sasuke himself, with only two chain links protruding from his chest, one of them broken. Sasuke wondered what the significance of the chains was- did they mean that they were dead- nothing more than ghosts, with their bonds with their bodies broken forever? If that was true, then wouldn't Sasuke's body be around, too? It took him a moment to realize that they were on the bank of the river that flowed through the valley- it wasn't too hard to imagine his corpse floating down the river. Then again, the chain on his back seemed to be moving, if only slightly- could it be possible that he was still alive? But Naruto only had one chain, and it was on his chest. So where did the one on his back go...? He grimaced, faced with the decision of staying with Naruto or going to find out where the chain went. He gulped, and made his choice.

* * *

As Naruto woke, he became immediately aware of another presence aside from his own. He sat straight up, and looked to his right- standing next to him were Kakashi and Pakkun, who were looking away from him. Curious, Naruto followed their gaze, and was horrified to see his own bloody corpse laying there, with a long chain attached to its chest that crawled into his direction looking down, he saw that the chain was broken- and the last link matched the break in the chain that was mysteriously attached to his own chest. Before he could even really ponder what they could mean, Kakashi spoke. "If only... I had gotten here sooner..." 

Pakkun sighed. "It wasn't your fault, Kakashi... I don't think anyone could've seen this coming."

Naruto spoke up. "Uh... guys? I'm over here."

However, they didn't react to him at all. However, someone else did. "They can't hear you, you know." Naruto turned to the source of the very familiar voice- standing behind him was none other than the Sandaime Hokage, dressed in black robes, with three katana strapped to his waist. He was also wearing the same bandana he had been wearing in his fight against Orochimaru.

"Wh- ojii-san? B-but.. aren't you..."

Sarutobi sighed. "Yes, Naruto. I am. And I hate to say it, but so are you." Naruto's eyes widened as the shock settled in. Sarutobi's eyes settled on the extremely short chain attached to Naruto's chest, which had begun to corrode the moment Naruto realized the implications of those words. An instant later, red energy began enveloping Naruto- the Kyuubi's spiritual energy. The energy formed a hand, and ripped the chain from Naruto's chest, revealing a hole that went all the way through his chest. Some kind of white liquid poured from the hole, and flew to his face, covering it almost completely. Before the substance closed on his forehead, however, Sarutobi dashed towards Naruto and tapped him on the forehead with the pommel of one of his katana, and Naruto became enveloped in a bright light and then disappeared. Sarutobi sighed once more. "Looks like I got to him in time... I wonder how he died, though..."

Kakashi's eye widened. "P-Pakkun, did you feel that?"

Pakkun nodded. "Oh, yeah. What do you think it was?"

Kakashi looked down at Naruto's corpse, which he was now carrying. "It felt like the Kyuubi's energy, but also there was something else... something even darker than the Kyuubi, if that's possible."

Pakkun sighed, and looked at Naruto. "Come on... we should go back to the village. It would be best if we could get him a proper burial. I sincerely hope that it wasn't Sasuke who did this... though the hole through the heart says otherwise. Tsunade-sama will not be pleased."

As the two of them disappeared, Sarutobi sighed yet again. "Sasuke, huh? I'm going to have to get Naruto to tell me what's been going on lately. Though it appears Tsunade is my replacement... that's good. Better her than a lot of people I know." A moment later, a door appeared right behind him and opened, with nothing but light on the other side. "Well, I guess I better get back to Soul Society... I need to see if I can get permission to search for Naruto. Though I'm sure I can get it, especially if I ask the right people." As he walked through the doors, they closed behind him and disappeared, and the valley became eerily quiet.

* * *

As Naruto awoke for a second time, he noticed something was on his face- taking it off, he realized it was a some sort of fox mask, not unlike what the ANBU wore, but this had a more menacing feeling to it, if that was possible. Deciding to hold on to it, he took a look at his surroundings- he was in the middle of a street in a town, but the place was quiet- too quiet. Looking around, he realized that there were people, but they were all staring at him. He growled. "What? Is there something on my face or something?" 

A little boy meekly spoke up. "Well, th-there was..."

Naruto looked down at the mask in his hand. "What, this? Don't tell me that this was all you guys are afraid of..."

A man's voice came from behind him. "What, do you mean that you're not a Hollow?"

Naruto looked towards the man. "Hollow? What are you talking about? I think I just died, like, ten minutes ago."

There was a major sigh of relief throughout the crowd. A man in a robe just like Sarutobi had been wearing pushed his way through the crowd. "Alright, what's going on here?"

Naruto looked up at him; his spiky red hair kinda reminded him of Shikamaru, while his attitude almost seemed like Kiba's. Great- NOW his life decided to flash before his eyes. "These guys think I'm something called a Hollow or something like that. It's all cleared up now, though."

The man glared at him. "Is it, now? So you had that mask when you died, then?"

Naruto gulped. "W-well, no... you see, I was talking with a guy who had a robe on like yours, and then there was this big pain in my chest, and there was all of this white stuff, and then he hit my on the head with the pommel of his sword, and then 'POOF', I'm here!"

The man softened his gaze a bit. "I see... a konso during hollowification, huh? Never heard of that, before... I'm sure the higher-ups are going to want to meet you." A black butterfly fluttered next to the man's face. "Speaking of which... they just called out a Rukonkai-wide search for you. You must be something special, boy..."

Naruto sighed. "Why do I feel like that this whole after-life thing is going to be one big pain?"

The man smirked. "It normally is at first... you get used to it eventually, or so I'm told. Name's Abarai Renji. You're Uzumaki Naruto, right?" Naruto nodded slowly. "Well, come on, then- I've got to get you to Seireitei."

* * *

Naruto gulped. Renji had brought him into this large city guarded by very tall walls, with a very tall gate, with a _very_ tall gate guard. After they had walked through, they were stopped by somebody. In front of him stood another one of those men in black robes; he guessed it was the shinigami uniform.. This guy had spiky blond hair similar to his own, but longer. He also had similar blue eyes. And, just as Sarutobi had still been wearing his Konoha helmet in death, this man was wearing a Konoha hitai-ate, and had two katanas tied to his waist. The man's lips parted to ask a question. "Uzumaki Naruto, shinobi of Konohakagure no Sato?" 

Naruto nodded, and gulped. He felt like he knew this man from somewhere, but he couldn't tell where from. Not only that, but the man had quite a fearsome aura- just being in his presence was intimidating. The man walked up to Naruto, and Naruto broke into a cold sweat. The man stood right before Naruto, and before he knew what was going on, Naruto was being... hugged. The man sobbed. "I'm so sorry, Naruto... I'm so sorry... my son."

Naruto's eyes widened. Was this guy really his father? Naruto saw Sarutobi approach the scene. "Uzumaki Naruto, meet your father, Namikaze Minato... the Yondaime Hokage." Naruto began tearing up. "The Yondaime is... my father? I guess that explains a lot..."

Renji stared at the scene. "W-wait a second, this boy is the son of _the _Namikaze Minato? B-but... if he just died... then doesn't that mean that Namikaze-san was... fooling around with a human?"

Minato obviously didn't hear him, as he didn't deviate from crying into his son's shoulders. Sarutobi sighed. "Abarai... Minato died the day Naruto was born. I assure you that Minato wasn't the type to fool around... at least, not after he met his wife."

Renji nodded. "I don't mind, I guess... though it must be kinda cool to go back to the living world after you've died. Me? I was raised in Rukongai, so I wouldn't know what living there's like..."

Sarutobi frowned, but didn't say anything. Minato backed off a little, but kept his arms on Naruto's shoulders. The late Yondaime Hokage didn't bring his eyes to meet with Naruto's. "Naruto... I hope you can understand... I never meant for my decision to hurt you... the villagers... I didn't know-"

"Dad! That's enough... it wasn't your fault... besides, didn't ojii-san tell you? I had people who cared for me... people who'll chase off the ones who would dare dance over my grave... people who will always remember the good stuff about me... and besides. I died fighting for Konoha, and that's all that matters when it comes to getting your name carved on the Hero's Memorial Stone."

Minato smiled. "Heh... you really are my son... alright, then! Why don't you become a shinigami, like your old man?"

Naruto's face was priceless in his father's eyes. "Wh-wh-wh-WHAT?!? You don't just ask people if they want to go around, reaping people's dead souls! It just ain't right!"

Sarutobi laughed. "That's not exactly the way it works, Naruto-kun... a shinigami's job is to lead dead souls to the afterlife. You've experienced it yourself; it's not like it's painful, and it's forbidden for a shinigami to actively kill someone, except in extremely special cases..."

Naruto forced a small smile. "R-really..."

Sarutobi nodded. "In fact, shinigami have all sorts of abilities that even shinobi would find impossible..."

Naruto's small smile turned into a big grin. "Where do I sign up?!?"

Minato's smile grew. "Heh! I'll show you! First, you have to go to the Academy..."

"WHAT?!? An Academy?!? But it's barely been a year since I left the last one!"

Minato's smile faltered for a second, but remained on his face. "That just means you'll be more used to it! A lot of the people there have never been to an actual school before, so you'll have the advantage!"

Naruto gave another one of his vulpine grins. "Well, when you put it that way... what are we waiting for?!?"

Renji sighed. He had just gotten out of the Academy, so he knew how much of a pain it really was. Sarutobi chuckled at the sight; those two really were father and son. They'd barely been together two minutes and they were already grinning like idiots.

* * *

Sasuke couldn't decide whether to burst into tears or blind rage when he saw where his chain led. The other end of the chain was affixed to the back of none other than Uchiha Itachi himself, who was walking along with his shark-like partner, whose name Sasuke didn't really know. The shark-man was easily identifiable by his signature weapon, while it was simple deductive work to tell that the other man was Itachi. Sasuke growled, and ran towards Itachi, not caring that his Chidori wasn't activating. However, when Sasuke's fist went through Itachi's chest, the rip in Itachi's cloak didn't appear to confirm it. Frustrated, Sasuke began a flurry of punches and kicks- all of which went right through his hated brother, but none of which did any damage. Itachi just kept on walking. Frustrated, Sasuke decided to start walking away when he realized that the chain attaching the two of them was remarkably shorter than it had been before. Was this how an avenger lived his afterlife? Forever cursed to follow the one who was the source of his despair, forever cursed to not be able to do anything? However, Sasuke had one comforting thought- no matter how long it would take, at least he'd be there when Itachi died. 

However, it seemed fate had something slightly different in store for the deceased Uchiha. A load roar shook Sasuke to the core of his being, and he broke into a nervous sweat- it was like nothing he had ever heard before, and the mere sound of it activated his survival instincts. Turning towards Itachi, he realized that either the two of them were ignoring it, or they didn't hear it. Sasuke turned to the source of the roar- a moment later, a large creature- or more accurately, monster- broke through the tree-line, knocking a few trees over in the process. Sasuke had never seen such a creature before- it looked kind of like a gorilla, but it didn't have any fur- only black skin, and on it's head was a white mask with black holes for eyes, and a grinning face. Both Itachi and Kisame were instantly on guard, but obviously couldn't see the beast, as their eyes scanned the area. Kisame turned to his younger partner. "What do you think that was...?"

Itachi activated his Sharingan, and kept his eyes on the general area where the trees fell. "Be on your guard... it seems we have more than just a shinobi on our hands here..."

Sasuke's eyes widened. Itachi could... see him? Then... why didn't he- Sasuke jumped out of the way of the beasts attack, and tried to kick the beast in the face. The beast blocked the kick, and then, grabbing Sasuke by the chain on his chest, held him high in the air. "Kehehehe... you're a lively one, aren't you? And you have such a powerful reiatsu for a human... I'll enjoy eating you. And when I'm done, I'll have those two over there for snacks..."

Sasuke's eyes narrowed in anger and fury. The tip of the chain began to rust. "No one..." He grabbed the chain on his chest, ignoring the burning feeling. "...kills Itachi..." He began to pull as hard as he could. "...BUT ME!!!" With one final pull, the chain in his chest ripped right off- leaving a gaping hole in his chest. Sasuke fell to the ground, screaming in pain, and he could feel a change trying to take over him as white liquid started pouring from the hole.

Itachi's eyes widened, and he dashed over towards Sasuke. Sasuke glared at his older brother, his hatred for the Uchiha traitor growing to such levels that Sasuke was able to ignore the pain and stand up and face Itachi. However, as the last of the material covered his body, Sasuke disappeared into nothingness. Itachi glared at the masked creature. "What... just happened here? What did you do to him?"

Kisame raised an eyebrow. "Uh... Itachi? Who are you talking to?"

Itachi ignored his partner, and focused on the creature before him. Said creature, recognizing the amount of killer intent and the amount of energy radiating from the man, cowered and bowed. "I-I didn't do it! It's because he ripped the chain from his chest!"

Itachi continued glaring at him, venom in his voice. _"What happened to him?"_

The creature cringed. "To sum it up... he's going to become... like me."

Itachi raised an eyebrow. "So, you're an evil spirit of some kind, then? That would explain why I need to use my Sharingan to see you... though that doesn't quite explain why I couldn't hear you before..."

The creature gulped. "I don't know about that either, but... with the level of power he had... I ought to get out of here before he re-forms!"

"Re-forms?"

"Y-yeah, when I changed, I dispersed just like he did, and when my body re-formed, I was like this."

Itachi narrowed his eyes. "I see... and just what _are_ you, anyways?"

"I'm not quite sure... haven't met any others of my kind yet. Though I do know... that I must eat human souls to survive..."

Itachi sighed. "I see... and knowing Sasuke, the first thing he'll try to eat is me..."

The creature gulped. "Y-yeah, when I changed, I was overcome with a desire to eat those closest to me..."

Itachi snorted. "We were once close... but now, I am the one he hates more than anything..."

Kisame had walked over to Itachi, obviously concerned about the whole affair. Not only that, but his Samehada had been acting really odd since the trees had been first knocked over. "Uh... Itachi? Are you alright? You hallucinating or something?"

However, before anything more could be said, there was a loud rumbling, and the ground beneath them broke- Itachi and Kisame jumped away, but the masked gorilla creature was instantly swallowed up by what appeared to be a large, white serpent. The serpent swallowed, and turned towards Itachi- said Uchiha was not all too surprised to see that there were three tomoe symbols on its white mask- one below each eye, and one on its forehead, in the same circular pattern as the Sharingan.

The snake began emerging from its hole, and as more of the body was revealed, so were multiple black wings, as well as long, white hair. The creature began flapping its wings, and the force of the wind kicked up a lot of dirt. It flew straight at Itachi, but when Itachi jumped out of the way, the snake changed direction towards Kisame, who was completely confused by the whole affair. In one swift motion, the snake swallowed Kisame whole, and there was instantly a change in the creature- it grew in size, as well as the number of wings. The creature turned to Itachi. It opened its mouth, and the voice was one Itachi knew well. "Itachi... it seems that I had to sacrifice everything to gain the power to kill you... even my own life. With this, the dark legacy of the Uchiha clan ENDS!"

Sasuke charged at Itachi, but the elder brother jumped out of the way. "Foolish little brother. It will take a lot more than that to kill me..."

Before either one could continue, however, a look of pain appeared in Sasuke's eyes, and he spat Samehada out of his mouth. "Th-that sword... it just refused to stay in my stomach..." However, his eyes narrowed when he saw what it looked like now that all of the bandages were gone. Smirking, a long tongue came from his mouth, wrapping around the handle. "Heh... looks like that that's not a bad thing..."

Itachi frowned as storm clouds covered the sky, and thunder rolled through his ears."Hmph... quite an appropriate setting for our final battle..."

Sasuke charged at Itachi, but when Itachi jumped out of the way, Sasuke used his tongue to swing Samehada at his brother. Thinking quickly, Itachi created a Kage Bunshin to jump out of the way, and onto the top of a tree. Sasuke growled as the rain began to pour and the lightning began to flash. "I'll kill you... and then I'll eat your ghost!"

Itachi frowned. "Well... I never thought your revenge would go farther than my death... though now that I know that there is an afterlife, I can't say I would've been too happy with that..."

Sasuke charged at him again, and Itachi lept from tree-top to tree-top, avoiding Sasuke's attempts to eat him, as well as the sword slices from Samehada. Not only that, but a few lightning bolts came unnaturally close to striking him. After one particularly close one struck the tree next to him, Itachi was forced to close his eyes... when he opened them again, Sasuke was nowhere to be seen. Itachi jumped out of the way just as Sasuke came from below and tried to swallow him. However, as he landed on the next tree, a bolt of lightning hit him straight on, paralyzing him. Itachi managed to speak through the pain. "H-how... so many lightning bolts... it seems..."

"Unnatural? You're right... I was controlling this storm the entire time..."

Itachi glared at what his little brother had become. "It seems... I have lost... but so have you."

Sasuke glared at him. "What do you mean?!? I'm still here, while you're about to die!"

Itachi grimaced. "But... aren't you already dead?"

Sasuke narrowed his eyes. "Let me rephrase that... I'll still be here, while you'll be wiped from existence!" Another bolt of lightning struck, and Itachi's corpse fell, while his spirit remained standing on the tree. However, before Sasuke could swallow him, Itachi disappeared in an instant, all traces of the energy that Sasuke had been sensing up until now vanishing. "WHAT?!? NO! I WON'T ALLOW THIS! MY REVENGE MUST BE COMPLETED! WHAT HAPPENED TO HIM?!?"

A voice came from behind him. "My, my... it seems he has passed on. I wasn't expecting that to happen in the middle of a battle." Sasuke turned his serpentine head to face the mysterious figure. "And just who... are _you_?"

* * *

**Kasek:** Evil cliffie, huh? I don't think I've ever read a fic where Sasuke gets turned into a Hollow, so I thought it would be a good idea to lay claim to it. I have plenty of cool surprises to spring, and some of you may have noticed the clues I've laid down as to what I'm going to do, and how I'm changing the characters. And yes, you will NEVER see Kisame again in this fic (as far as I know, anyways), so don't even bother trying to beg me to resurrect him. Itachi, on the other hand... well, we'll just have to wait and see on that matter. 

For those who who might be wondering why Sasuke's so powerful when he just became a Hollow, it's because he had a lot of spirit energy, as well as the fact that he ate both another Hollow AND he ate Kisame.

Also, please don't rub it in that I suck at emotional scenes. Please.

P.S. Found a fic where Sasuke becomes a Hollow, but it's older Sasuke, and it's sure quite different from what I have planned. Apologies to weixuan18 if he thinks I stole his idea. Also- If anyone took the title "BLEACHed", let me know so I can change it...


	2. Chapter 2

**Kasek:** Hey, remember me? The guy who never updates? Guess what I just did. Expect me to do the same with Kitsu Kitsu no Mi soon, too.

Well, I seem to have gotten some complaints about me not specifying pairings. I'm not exactly a pairing-kind-of-guy, as it's just not something that occurs to me until it happens. However, if a pairing is going to happen, it will probably be NaruSaku. It might not happen, though. If you want, you can give suggestions, try to make an argument for your case and stuff. Either reviews or going to my new forum, Kasek's Korner (I know, cheesy), will work just fine for me. Here's the link in case you don't feel like bothering with looking for it: ought to work, but if it doesn't, let me know. ...shoot, it doesn't work. Giveme a sec: type in the usual ffdotnet, slashforum,slash Kaseks Korner (with space), slash 39894. Hope it works.

**Disc.:** **I do own neither Naruto nor BLEACH. If I did, I would give BLEACH more plot and Naruto would have started dating Hinata already.**

Chapter 2: Academy Daze

Naruto stared at the huge academy. And stared. And stared. "Are you crazy, Dad?!? I can't do this! No way!"

Minato chuckled. "Come on, Naruto, it's already been a month. I even gave you some tips on controlling your reiatsu. You'll be fine! This place isn't nearly as bad as the one back in Konoha."

Naruto growled, and lifted his hand to the hitai-ate on his forehead- the only piece of clothing he kept from his living days. He was now wearing the Academy uniform, a white with red kimono with a red hakama. "I hope you noticed when I claimed that I was the dead-last in that academy..."

The former Yondaime Hokage crossed his arms and gave a big huff. "That was only because those teachers refused to teach you! Besides, it's not like it was YOUR fault you had more chakra than most jonin know what to do with!"

Naruto gave his father a mock glare. "Yeah, you're right. It's YOURS."

Minato raised his arms in front of his face in a playful defensive gesture. "Come on, last I checked, having a bijuu in your belly doesn't affect your normal chakra. That was all inherited from your mom's side of the family, I swear!"

Naruto's mock-glaring ceased. "My... mom?"

Minato pulled out a cell-phone. "Oh, would you _look_ at the time? I've _really_ got to get going. Oh, yeah, I forgot to tell you, I signed you up to board here. Hope you don't mind. Later!" In the blink of an eye, Namikaze Minato disappeared from sight. Naruto wondered what that technique was for a second, knowing that it wasn't a jutsu (dead people couldn't use chakra, after all), before his mind got right back on track. "Hey! Get back here! I don't care if you ARE the Hokage AND my dad! I'll get you for this!"

As many people raised eyebrows at the spectacle of Uzumaki Naruto, one pair of eyes was focused on the back of his blond head, having apparently recognized his voice. "Naruto...?"

Naruto grumbled, and turned back towards the huge campus before him. The figure's eyes widened, and made a dash for Naruto. "N-Naruto!!!"

Naruto's eyes widened as he realized who was dashing towards him, and his body froze. "Sa-!" His cry was cut off when he was tackled to the ground. He heard muffled sobs from the face that was buried in his chest.

"Naruto... I'm sorry...I'm so sorry... It's all my fault..."

Naruto stared at the mass of pink on his chest. "Sakura-chan...? Why are you here?"

The mass of pink lifted, and underneath it was, indeed, the face of Haruno Sakura, Naruto's former teammate, which was now covered in tears.. "I'm so sorry... it's all my fault... it's all my fault..."

Naruto didn't quite know what to do in this situation. Here he was, in the middle of the street, with the girl of his dreams- who was SUPPOSED to be alive- crying into his chest, and seeing as he didn't LIKE the fact that she was crying (in public, no less), he tried to comfort her. "What's your fault, Sakura-chan?"

She sobbed again. "Th-that... you and Sasuke-kun are... are..." She couldn't take it anymore, and she once again burst into tears. Naruto sat up, and let her cry into his shoulder. Naruto noticed that she had said "You and Sasuke". Did that mean that Sasuke was dead too? However, his mind didn't process any more as he went back to trying to comfort his friend. "Sakura-chan... it's not your fault..."

"Yes it is! If I hadn't made you go on that stupid mission, you would still be alive! You would still have your shot at Hokage! And Sasuke-kun... now he'll never get to take his revenge, or revive his clan... How could I be so stupid..."

Another figure approached the two. "Actually... I think he managed to clear _one_ of those objectives..."

Naruto turned towards the figure, and his eyes froze, and his mouth drew into a snarl. Sakura, curious, turned towards the figure. Naruto let out a low growl. "Uchiha... Itachi..."

Sakura's eyes widened in fear. This was the man that Sasuke wanted to kill? He didn't look all that threatening in his academy uniform... Her eyes widened even further when she realized what his presence here meant. "Y-you mean... he's still..."

Itachi shook his head. "Alive? No... but he isn't here, either."

Sakura started shaking. "Wh-what do you mean by that?"

Naruto helped Sakura up to his feet, and then he growled at Itachi again. "What do you mean by that? If a soul as twisted as yours managed to make it into Soul Society, then Sasuke should be here, too!"

Itachi chuckled. "As twisted as mine, you say? How ironic that you should be saying that, when Sasuke's own soul has been twisted beyond almost all recognition?"

Naruto took a step back. "What... did you say?" However, before anything else happened, a large bell rang throughout the campus, and everyone started making a mad-dash towards the main building.

Itachi turned towards the main building himself. "Ah... it seems the opening ceremony is about to begin. Since you are both wearing the uniforms, I advise you not to be late. This looks to be an interesting afterlife."

As Itachi walked away, Naruto and Sakura just stared at him blankly. After a minute, Naruto snapped out of it. "AH! He's right! We better run for it, Sakura-chan! We're going to be late!"

Before Sakura could even regain her composure, Naruto was practically dragging her. It took a moment for her to at least get enough sense back into her head to walk on her own. As she ran after Naruto, her head was just too confused to think straight. Itachi had said that Sasuke's soul had been twisted... but what did that mean? And why in the world was Itachi able to come to Soul Society? She had been told that Hell was a very real place by the people she had stayed with before her potential as a shinigami was discovered. He must've done a LOT of charity work to work his way here...

She was brought out of her thoughts when she realized that Naruto had stopped. Looking around, she realized that they were in a huge auditorium, and practically every seat was taken. In fact, the only two seats not taken... happened to be right next to Itachi, who was in the farthest back row, three seats from the door. Naruto grit his teeth, while Itachi glanced at them nonchalantly.

"It is rude to stand during occasions such as these. You should sit down before they start." Naruto growled at the Uchiha, but took the seat that was closer to him- most likely to better protect Sakura, though he knew that he couldn't if he tried.

Sakura took the last seat, and not a moment too soon- the auditorium darkened, leaving only the stage up front lit. A lone figure hobbled onto the stage, and instantly Naruto and Sakura could sense how powerful this guy was. He definitely carried had an air of power about him, despite the fact that he was relying on a cane to move around. The man was bald, with a very long, braided beard. His stance said that he was very, _very _old; it almost seemed that the cane was the only thing keeping him up. He had a shinigami uniform on, but he also had a white haori that was obviously too large for him draped over his shoulders. Each time the cane touched the floor, the noise reverberated throughout the entire auditorium, and yet his footsteps didn't seem to make any noise at all. After a minute, he managed to reach the center of the stage, and with one, final, resounding stomp of his cane, he turned to his audience. He introduced himself as Yamamoto-Genryusai Shigekuni, and gave an introductory speech. Naruto found the whole ordeal rather boring, but at the same time, at least tried to pay attention.

Apparently, this man was the person who had founded the Shinigami Academy almost a thousand years ago, which Naruto understood to mean that this guy was a lot older than even that. The Shinigami Academy was not merely a place to learn-it was a place where they could weed out people too weak to become Shinigami. Naruto had figured as much, as the Academy back home was essentially the same thing.

Naruto's mind began to wander, deciding to focus instead on the two people on either side of him. First up was Sakura. Why was she here? To be here meant that she was dead... but how did that happen? She seemed very torn up over his death... well, at least Sasuke's death, anyways. But she did seem sincerely sorry that he had died, too. If she was so torn up about it... then, could she be here because she had commited suicide? Naruto shook his head-there was no way Sakura would do something like that... would she?

At the same time, Sakura's mind was focused on Naruto, while still listening to the wizened captain's speech. There was so much she wanted to ask him- Tsunade had lifted the Third Hokage's ban on talking about Naruto's birth, so not only did the new generation find out that the Kyuubi had been sealed inside of him, but everyone in the entire village found out for the first time who his father really was. She knew for sure that he hadn't known who his father was, but... how come he had never told anybody about what was inside of him? They were a team- they shouldn't have been keeping any secrets from each other.

Naruto's mind wandered over to Itachi. How the heck did he get into Soul Society? And what did he mean when he said that Sasuke had managed to kill him? Naruto remembered that he couldn't touch anything back when he was still in the land of the living. And, to say that Sasuke's soul was even more twisted than Itachi's? Naruto remembered what his dad had taught him over thet past month- he said that there were souls that weren't reached by Shinigami,and whose very souls twisted until the point that they became monsters of the worst kind- Hollows, creatures who fed on human souls for sustenance. Had Sasuke undergone the transformation? After all, it only took feelings of sorrow and rage... and Sasuke probably had plenty of both when he realized he was dead.

Itachi, not surprisingly, was thinking about Naruto. After all, he was both an Uchiha and a member of Akatsuki- naturally, he was interested in the current status of the Kyuubi no Kitsune. Was it dead? Alive, but rampaging in the land of the living? Did it go back to whence it came, never to be seen again? Or, as it was a spirit being anyways, was it still sealed inside of Naruto?

Naruto was startled when everyone started to get up and leave. "Wait, huh? Don't tell me it's over already?

Sakura sighed. "You're the same as ever, Naruto... we don't have any classes today, but we're supposed to look around campus and make sure we know where everything is. Come on, I'm going to make sure you don't fail out of this Academy, you almost failed out of the last one."

Naruto paled. "Sakura-chaaan... I already have my dad on my case about that, not you too..."

Itachi growled. "Do you mind getting out of my way? You're holding some of us up." Sakura and Naruto gulped, feeling the combined annoyance of Itachi and the several students behind him, wishing to get on with their lives. Needless to say, the two former genin dashed for the exit.

**Kasek:** FINALLY! IT IS FINISHED! I had SUCH a hard time with this chapter. I was trying to figure out what to make Shigekuni say. With my brain, that ended up creating months of writer's block. Got around it by not making him say anything at all. In retrospect, that was EXTREMELY obvious. Also, 'obvious in retrospect' and variations thereof seem to be my favorite phrases right now.

I've been having some... difficulties, with life lately. But I seem to be able to get back into the groove of things, mostly, so be glad I got into it before Super Smash Bros. Brawl came out. I am OBSESSED with SSB, so it's going to be a while before I can finish any more chapters.

Again, suggestions are welcome, though I have a lot of the important stuff in my head. And I apologize for the shortnessof the chapter compared to the length of time since the last update. Really.

Also, I removed all references to Minato being a vice-captain. Found a better place for him.


	3. Chapter 3

**Kasek:** Ummm... listen. I have NO clue what I was thinking when I wrote this. It just kind of... came out. Took me a while to pave over the inconsistencies.

I FINALLY decided on Minato's position in the Gotei 13. At first, I had thought of 2nd division vice-captain. And then, I thought of 11th division 4th seat (it suits him). But now I finally have it- you'll probably see it coming. If you go back through the chapters, you'll notice that I removed references to him being a vice-captain. Also, I ret-conned Sakura's thoughts on Naruto at the end of the last chapter- I realized that Sakura already knew about Naruto's dad.

Also, anyone expecting Kitsu Kitsu no Mi 7 to come out soon- don't. I REALLY need to rework it. I went back over it, and it seems extremely rushed. I mean, really- you don't want to see from the bell test to post-first Zabuza fight in six pages, do you?

So, just read and review. Please. Point out any errors you see, alright?

**Disclaimer:** **I own NOTHING. Yet. In this case, I do not own Naruto or BLEACH (or One Piece, due to the AN).**

--

Naruto sighed as he walked along, carrying his large stack of books. "Great. I have to learn not only about the afterlife, but about an entirely different 'living world' than I'm from... what's up with that? Did I end up in the wrong afterlife or something?"

Sakura, who was having less difficulty with her books due to having brought a bookbag, looked up at the sky. "Well, I heard that our world was only recently connected to the afterlife- before, everyone just reincarnated back into our world. I think it has something to do with the Yondaime, the Sandaime, and the Kyuubi. Which reminds me, you've met him up here, right? Your dad?"

Naruto beamed at the mention of his father. "Yep! He's pretty cool, I guess. A total goofball, though. He's a vice-captain in one of those Gotei 13 divisions. Can't quite remember which, though, I don't pay attention... Wait a sec, I never told you about my dad!"

Sakura looked down towards the ground. "Well... you were yelling at him when I met you...plus, after you died, it kind of became public knowledge who your father was..."

Naruto snickered at the thought of how conflicted everyone must have been- was he the Kyuubi, or the son of the Yondaime? It must have fried their brains. "I bet that shocked a LOT of people..."

Sakura smiled, and put her eyes back on the path. "So, is your mother up here, too? I haven't heard anything about her before..."

Naruto pouted- he was just as curious. "If she is, dad's been keeping her a secret from me. I asked about it right before you saw me, and that's why he ran off. Geez..."

Sakura's tone of voice saddened a little. "Yeah... it must nice to have family up here..."

Naruto immediately knew what she meant, and became even more depressed then her. "Sorry... I feel like an idiot now. More of one, anyways..."

Sakura tried to get him out of said depression. "Hey, you may be an idiot, but right now, I'm the only one who knows that. Who knows, you might actually become popular up here."

Naruto failed to smile. "I know you're just trying to cheer me up, but... I completely forgot about the living world... we have no clue as to what

happened to Sasuke... and I doubt Itachi will be very forthcoming on the subject..."

Sakura frowned at the thought of trying to get on Itachi's good side. "Yeah... we don't have much of a window to find out, either. Knowing Itachi, he'll be out of here in no time."

Naruto raised an eyebrow. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Sakura sighed. Same old Naruto... "You never did care about learning things... Itachi is the greatest genius the Konoha Ninja Academy has ever seen. It only took him a year to graduate."

Naruto's eyes widened. "Wh-wh-what?!? And that was before he was a ninja..."

Sakura nodded. "Not only that, he was only five years old at the time. He's both older and wiser than he was back then. It won't be long before he's surrounded by the likes of suck-ups and fangirls, and not much longer before he's out of here."

Naruto smirked. "Never thought I'd hear that kind of thing from you. You've really changed since the Academy."

Sakura blushed from the embarrassing memory. "Hey, field experience does that kind of thing to people."

Naruto's smirk remained. "Yeah, it does. It also gives US the edge in combat training and kido training... I think. Combat training for sure."

Sakura sighed, and pinched her forehead. "Do you even know how kido works, Naruto?"

Naruto smirked. "Hey, don't count me out just yet. My dad gave me a little bit of preparatory training before I came here."

Sakura smiled. "Good. I don't have a clue as to what kido even IS. It sounds hard... Care to give me a hint?"

A foxy grin grew on Naruto's face. It felt good to be the one in the know. "It's kind of like using ninjutsu, but instead of chakra, it uses pure spiritual energy, and instead of handsigns, it uses chants."

Sakura sighed in relief. "Good. I thought it was something that would take a lot of effort. But if it's just spiritual energy manipulation, then we're all set. Unfortunately, history isn't exactly your strong point..."

Naruto's face paled. What she said was certainly true- anything that didn't involve the Hokages, he often forgot. "Well, this time, I've got you to help me study. Um... you ARE gonna help me, right?"

Sakura chuckled. "You're the only person I even know up here. Not only that, but we're comrades- and comrades don't abandon other comrades in need."

"Sooo...that's a yes?"

Sakura sighed, and smiled. "Yes, Naruto, I'll help you with your homework."

--

Naruto sighed. It was the first day of classes, and his first class of the day was hand-to-hand combat training. The teacher was short, balding, and fat- not exactly the first thing that came to mind when Naruto thought of martial arts masters. The man was calling out the role, seeing who was here and who wasn't. Naruto noticed that both Sakura and Itachi were in this class- which was a good thing in his eyes, it meant they could keep an eye on him. Eventually, the man got to his name. "Namikaze Naruto!" Naruto gave a "Present!" as he had heard all of the other students do, but all of a sudden, the whole room's attention was on him. There was a moment of silence, and then the whole class erupted into whispers. Needless to say, Naruto was confused.

Sakura, too, was confused about the uproar. She leaned over to the girl to her right. "What's going on? What's the big fuss about?"

The girl giggled. "You mean you don't know? He's the son of Namikaze Minato, one of THE most handsome guys in Soul Society, second only to Kuchiki Byakuya himself! Looks like all the right genes got passed down, too!"

Sakura had to suppress a giggle of her own. Handsome was NOT the word she would use to describe Naruto. The girl to her left took a closer look at Sakura. "Hey, aren't you that girl who was hanging out with him yesterday? You're not his girlfriend, are you?"

Sakura had to work harder to suppress the smirk that wanted to come out- it appeared on Inner Sakura's features, instead. _Heh, he WISHES that was true..._ She smiled. "No, we're just close friends. We grew up together." She had to resist the urge to smack herself in the face. She sounded almost PROUD of it.

A sly grin grew on the girl's face. "So, he's available?"

Sakura sighed. It had been forever since she had participated in 'girl-talk',and Naruto wasNOT the subject she wanted to talk about. "Single, yes. I think so, anyways, I haven't seen him for a month. Available, no. Last I checked, he has his heart set on getting this one girl to date him."

The girl gasped. "What kind of girl WOULDN'T want to go out with a guy like that?"

Sakura resisted the urge to facepalm. "A girl that actually got to know him, that's who..."

Eventually, their sensei reached the end of the roster. "Alright, kiddies, playtime's over. I let you get that last bit of childhood out of your systems. This is a serious class, and is to be taken SERIOUSLY at all times. Am I clear on this matter?"

Naruto stifled a groan. This man sounded like a lot like his combat instructor back in Konoha. He nodded with the rest of the class all the same, though.

"Good. As you already know, this is hand-to-hand combat training. To be realistic, the odds of you needing to fight a Hollow with your bare hands are very slim. Let's accept it- if you're separated from your zanpakuto, and you can't use kido, you're screwed. Any Hollow that's small enough for you to fight hand-to-hand with... will either be an easy kill, and thus you'll have your zanpakuto anyways, or they're Vasto Lorde class menos, in which case you'd be dead from being in their presence. However, this class is not truly about learning to fight hand-to-hand- it's about discipline. If you can't figure out how to throw a punch, there's no way we're letting you near a zanpakuto. First off, we're going to go into drills. Later, we'll split into pairs for practice matches. I want to see how well some of you can fight, and how badly the rest of you cannot. The first drill is..."

Naruto was very glad that he had been a shinobi in his past life- aside from him, only Sakura, Itachi, and some other guy were still standing. Even then, the last guy was panting heavily. The sensei looked up from his clipboard. "Well, well, this is a surprise. I wasn't expecting anyone to still be able to stand at the end of the first day, let alone four of you. Tell me, how come you three seem unaffected by this, hmm?"

Itachi spoke up. "Namikaze-kun, Haruno-kun, and myself were all members of our village's military in life."

Naruto had to suppress a growl. It's not like it was a total lie, but he was acting like he had been their allies up until they died. The sensei raised an eyebrow. "Really now? Not often we see people come here from the world of the living with spiritual talents. But do they really let kids like this into the military nowadays?"

Itachi remained emotionless. "I was in service as far back as when I was five years old. However, I... retired at age 13 to become a mercenary after my family died. I was killed by a Hollow due to my high spiritual energy, but managed to escape and eventually came to Soul Society."

The man sighed. "I'll take your word for it... but five? Yeesh, humans, nowadays..."

Naturally, this caused a buzz among the girls, who had taken notice of Itachi after recovering from their small bout of exhaustion. After all, he had both good looks and a cool demeanor, not unlike a very popular Shinigami captain. Add in the tragic past, and he was nearly elevated to a godly status in their eyes. They only had two wishes- first, that his family turn out to be a well-to-do family (which they will eventually find out to be true.), and second, that he HAD broken a sweat.

He turned to the last guy- he seemed to be around Itachi's age. He had short, brown hair and dark eyes. He had a scar running down his right cheek, and his skin was rather tan. "Let me guess- outer Rukongai, right?" The boy nodded. The man sighed. "Be careful around here- there's a lot of prejudice towards people who come from the poor districts. Personally, I think we should recruit more shinigami from over there, instead of having to train pampered brats from the ground up..."

This sparked Naruto's interest- other than his first few minutes in Soul Society, he hadn't really seen Rukongai. Judging by the boy's demeanor, it must be one heck of a rough place in the poor districts...

He turned to the class. "Alright, I'll cut you guys some slack- it IS the first day, after all. You don't have to fight each other. I just say that kind of stuff to make you work harder so you're more likely to focus on training hard. Though, don't expect me to do it again- next time I say that there's going to be a fight, there's GOING to be a fight. Am I clear?"

All of the students sighed in relief, and nodded. The bell signaling that the class was over rang (Naruto noticed that it wasn't electronic), and they all filed out- the majority of the females chasing after Itachi, though a few of the younger ones were still loyal to Naruto. Not like he realized it- Naruto was too busy trying to remember what class he was going to next.

"We're going to Life Studies, next. The class about the living world." Naruto looked at Sakura, who had managed to get through the crowd. Naruto smiled. "Thanks! Though, it is kinda creepy that you knew what I was thinking."

Sakura sighed. "Naruto... you're one of the easiest people to read in all of existence. ANYONE can read your mind, you leave it on your face."

Naruto looked affronted. "That's not entirely true! I happen to be a master of concealing my feelings! I just haven't felt like it lately, that's all!"

Sakura smirked. "Suuuure you are."

Naruto was about to argue further, but they had already gotten to class. He sighed- that particular comment brought to mind why he had such a cheery disposition anyways. All of the hatred, the feeling of nonexistence... he put his hand on his chest when he felt a sudden pain in his heart. It was similar to the pain he had felt when he had died... the pain of emptiness. The pain went away just in time- the teacher was calling role.

After class, Naruto and Sakura had to split ways for the third class of the day. Naruto sighed- his next class was about Hollows. He desperately wished that he had a zanpakuto training class, but that wasn't for a while. Hopefully, he could impress his martial arts sensei and he would get upgraded. His dad had said that that was both he and old man Sarutobi had done- all you have to do is prove that you're a master of a certain subject, and they pass you.

He noticed that Itachi was in this class, as well. All of the seats around his seemed to be occupied by girls- Naruto couldn't help but snicker. It was probably in his blood. The sensei- another balding man, but this one tall and thin- took the role call. Soon, class started, and Naruto was subjugated to a lecture about Hollows more boring than Iruka's had been. Eventually, after having covered the basics of the process of becoming a Hollow, the man started using a slightly different teaching method. "Now, class, I have to ask- have any of you had any experience with Hollows before? Any at all?" No one answered. "Odd. I had most certainly heard that at least one of my students had not only seen a Hollow,but watched it transform from a Plus to a Hollow... Uchiha-kun, is this true?"

Naruto gulped. Was he implying what Naruto thought he was implying...? Itachi nodded. "Yes. Before I came to Soul Society, I personally witnessed my younger brother's chain of fate removed from his chest and was nearly eaten when the resulting Hollow tried to eat me. I managed to get away, but I am most certain that the Hollow is still at large."

Naruto was horrified- he did not know how he was going to break this to Sakura. He was barely able to hold it together himself.

The teacher frowned. "Tell me, Uchiha-kun. What did this Hollow look like?"

All of the girls around Itachi were glaring at the teacher- this was NOT how you treated your students. Naruto, too, was aware that this teacher seemed particularly cruel, but his interest in the subject at hand overrode every other rational thought.

Itachi closed his eyes in thought. "He turned into a large snake with black wings and a white, nearly skeletal head. The head had three tomoe marks on it- onebelow each eye, and one on its forehead."

The man raised an eyebrow. "That's a rather unique sounding Hollow. Tell me, Uchiha-kun, what did this Hollow act like? Did he name himself?"

Itachi frowned, and every girl in the class frowned with him. "He identified himself as Uchiha Sasuke. He seemed to be very similar to his old self, though he seemed to be driven mad with the desire to consume me."

The sensei began talking to the class again. "As you heard from Uchiha-kun, it is perfectly normal for a Hollow to identify themselves as their former self for a short period of time after they become Hollows. Eventually, their personalities erode, and only the strong of will and those who were monsters in life retain rational thought. Even then, it is extremely rare to come across a Hollow unwilling to devour anything. After all, all beings have the will to survive engraved into their souls, so only the extremely naïve would not eat another soul, and even then, naivety and a strong will are, last I checked, an impossible combination."

Naruto was now simultaneously horrified and disgusted- the term 'comrade' should not be used to apply to... things that devour each other at a moment's notice. He was also afraid for Sasuke's well-being- would he be able to adapt to such a situation? More than likely he retained rational thought, so at the very least, he wouldn't be eaten himself for a while.

The man continued. "Now, you're probably thinking, 'what does this have to do with shinigami?' It is not only part of a shinigami's job to guide Pluses to the afterlife, but to slay Hollows- preferably with your zanpakuto. Can anyone tell me why?"

A girl with glasses spoke up. "Because Hollows slain with zanpakuto become normal again?"

The teacher smiled. "Correct. Hollows slain by zanpakuto are purified and come to reside in Soul Society just like any other soul. However, it is extremely uncommon for souls that were once Hollows to become shinigami- Pluses with spiritual power tend to either be rescued or eaten before they can turn into a Hollow. Any that do become Holllows tend to be unnaturally powerful, and are thus put on high priority for purifying, so they stay in Hueco Mundo, the world of the Hollows."

Naruto smirked- he could finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. Sasuke was more than likely a 'powerful Hollow', so that meant that if he ever came to the human world for food, the shinigami would know immediately. And since all ninja had spiritual power (even Rock Lee, though his energy was too unstable to mold), and Sasuke had tons of the stuff, he'd be recruited for shinigami duty in no time. Team 7 would be back together again! Well, minus Kakashi, anyways. Naruto shook his head-he needed to stop thinking about Konoha. It would only make him sad. He'd ask Sakura about it later if he really needed to.

His train of thought hit the emergency brakes when the teacher called on him. "Namikaze-kun, I've also heard that you have some... experience, with the transformation process of becoming a Hollow, right?"

Naruto gulped- just how cruel this teacher really was hit him. "H-hai." The sensei smirked. "Do you mind telling us about it?"

Naruto sighed, and resignedhimself to his fate. "Well, it's hard to explain, it all happened so fast. When I died, a shinigami- Sarutobi Hiruzen- was already there, and-" "Sarutobi Hiruzen, you say? That old man who breezed through the Academy not too long ago?" Naruto nodded. "Yeah, that's the one. Anyways, I knew immediately that something was wrong- after all, I had attended the guy's funeral. He told me I was dead, and then... I don't quite know. I remember that it felt like my heart was being torn apart- right before I passed out, I felt.. well, the best way to put it was that I felt... hollow, inside. Next thing I knew, I was in Soul Society."

The sensei looked rather impressed. "To tell you the truth, that's the first time I've ever heard a first-hand account of the process. However, that is still how it was described to me, as well. That 'hollow feeling' is what gives Hollows their names- their hearts are hollow, devoid of compassion and sympathy. As I already mentioned, nearly all Hollows have a hole through their chest to represent this. Now, can someone tell me what their white masks symbolize?"

The same girl raised her hand. "To hide their previous identities?"

The sensei nodded. "Also correct. Beneath every monstrous mask is a human face. Many a novice shinigami have fallen prey to Hollows because they were surprised when they cut off the mask and saw the face, and became unwilling to kill them. Make sure that the same doesn't happen to you." The bell rang. "Ah, that time already? I won't assign any homework. Tomorrow, we start going over the details of the things I have discussed today, starting with the transformation process. Dismissed!"

--

Naruto and Sakura were eating lunch together under the shade one of the many trees on campus- they weren't the only ones, as many of the students preferred eating outside, but they were the only ones actually eating lunch while sitting on the branches. Ninja training can be really helpful sometimes. Naruto was the first to speak up. "So, you find anything useful in your classes?"

Sakura nodded. "Kind of. Apparently, I'm a kido prodigy."

Naruto snickered. "We all knew THAT was going to happen. What else?"

Sakura thought for a second. "Not much, really. Learned a basic kido spell. You?"

Naruto sighed- now was the moment of truth. "Well, I've got good news, and I've got bad news. Want me to give the bad news first?"

Sakura gulped. "Something tells me that I don't want to hear this..."

Naruto nodded. "Not like I wanted to, either... basically, what Itachi meant, that first day, was that

Sasuke's soul has twisted to the point where he's become a giant, man-eating winged snake demon."

Sakura closed her eyes, and pinched her forehead. "PLEASE tell me that the good news is that the process can be reversed..."

Naruto grinned. "Yep! All we have to do is get our hands on a zanpakuto, and slice him in two!"

Sakura looked about ready to bash his skull in. "How does THAT help?!?"

Naruto smiled. "Because if you do that, his soul will turn back to normal, and he'll come to Soul Society like you and me!"

It took a moment for the full meaning of that to hit Sakura. Her face eventually showed the elation she felt. "So, looks like you haven't broken your promise after all..."

A grin broke across Naruto's face. "Yep! I'll make sure that he comes to Soul Society! Unless, of course, someone beats me to it. Shinigami are kind of indiscriminate when it comes to purifying those guys. Part of the job, after all."

Sakura's smile faltered. "'Those guys'? You mean, there's more of these monsters?"

Naruto's grin started to fade. "...well, shoot. I forgot about that. They have their own planet...that can't be good. Umm... well, we'll just become the strongest shinigami EVER, and just raid that stupid planet until we kill the right Hollow! It's not like it's a BAD thing to kill them. Plus, they have to go to the living world for food, so the shinigami always know whenever one pops up."

Sakura giggled. "That's just like you, Naruto... making it sound like becoming the best is so easy..."

Naruto's smile had a bit of sadness engraved on it. "Yeah... I never did make it to Hokage... which reminds me...you don't have to tell me right now, but... what happened in Konoha after I died?"

Sakura looked up at a nearby branch, and it was evident that she, too, was sad. "Well... long story short, the place fell apart without you. Weird, huh? Wasn't that long ago that the entire village despised you... well, they still do, but at least the funeral had more people attending than just Iruka-sensei."

Naruto frowned. "My funeral, huh..."

Sakura nodded. "Yeah... if I wasn't here with you, I don't think I'd be able to talk about it... it's certainly an odd experience, talking to someone about their funeral after the fact..."

Naruto sighed. "Look, if you don't want to talk about it..."

Sakura mirrored his sigh. "It's alright... this kind of stuff is important. The sooner I get it off of my chest, the better..."

Naruto's eyes still held a look of seriousness to them. "So, who actually went to the funeral?"

Sakura closed her eyes in thought. "Well... obviously, the Rookie 9 were there, as was Team Gai. Tsunade-sama, Jiraiya-sama, and Shizune were all there, too... Iruka-sensei came with the Konohamaru Corps, and Teuchi-san and Ayame-san were there... Surprisingly, Gaara, Temari, and Kankuro came. They were already in the village, so they made sure to come. Even more surprisingly, Hyuuga Hiashi- Hinata's dad- came with Neji and Hinata."

Naruto smiled. "Except for the Suna nin and Hiashi... that's pretty much who I expected to come... what was the funeral like?"

Sakura kept her eyes closed. "It was... very emotional. Even Kakashi-sensei had a hard time keeping it together. Because you were a ninja, it went like the Sandaime's funeral, but afterwards..."

Naruto gulped. "Afterwards...?"

"...well, I'll talk about Kakashi-sensei first. He started taking a lot of dangerous missions, and stopped acting so... goofy. He left my training to Tsunade-sama, instead. Shikamaru was hit pretty badly, too- he felt just as responsible as me and Kakashi-sensei, because he was your team leader..."

Even only this far in, Naruto was having a hard time not crying, and so was Sakura. She continued. "I haven't seen Iruka-sensei since, but Konohamaru tells me that his classes are even more boring than before... as for Ichiraku's, they closed down the moment they heard you were dead, and they had only just reopened before I died..."

A small smile graced his lips. "I guessed those two liked me a lot, huh..."

Sakura nodded. "Lee is determined more than ever to become a great shinobi, not only for himself, but for you, as well... and I remember seeing Gaara at your grave, a lot, too. Just standing there, silently. You certainly changed him, he's a lot nicer than he used to be... he even told me he was sorry about what he'd done to me back during the exams. He said that he was going to become Kazekage, just like how you wanted to be Hokage."

Naruto smiled. Gaara as Kazekage, huh? She resumed. "Neji was hit kind of hard, too. He didn't go back to the jerk he used to be, but... I once saw him at your grave, berating you for dying before you proved the rest of the village wrong about your fate...however... the person who got hit harder than anyone was Hinata. Neji told me that she just locked herself up and cried for days on end. Even after she came out, she hasn't acted like herself at all- no stuttering, no pushing her fingers together, not even a smile. When he sparred with her, he said that she seemed almost devoid of compassion."

Naruto stared at his food, his body frozen. "Hinata...was hit that hard? But... why would she..."

Sakura sighed. "I don't think it's exactly my place to tell you this, but... she loved you. For her, you were her reason for existence, the reason as to why she should get stronger. You took up the whole of her heart, and when you died, so did everything that made Hinata, well, Hinata."

Naruto looked back on every time he had interacted with the girl- he almost punched himself in the face at how obvious it had been. He reminded himself to do it later when Sakura wasn't around. "She didn't... die, did she?"

Sakura shook her head. "No... as far as I know, I'm the only Konoha shinobi to have died since then. Why, do you want her to?"

Naruto shook his head. "No! That kind of thing is... well, if that had been me... I don't know what I'd do..." He looked back at her. "And... how did you react?"

It was Sakura's turn to freeze. "Look...I don't really want to talk about it right now... alright? I'll tell you about the other stuff some other time... it's almost time for classes again, and we haven't eaten yet..."

Naruto nodded in understanding, but at the same time, the same question burned in his mind- how had she died?

**Kasek:** This chapter was... boring to write. The last part, however, was something I wanted to write. I don't know if it's my degrading brain, but I actually cried writing it. Well, teared up, anyways.

If you hadn't noticed, I do like the idea of NaruHina. However, it's not going to happen in this fic- after all, that would require Hinata to, you know, die.

So, I want to know- you guys want to hear Sakura's story now, or later? It's probably going to take up a whole chapter, so it'll interrupt the flow of the story. I have the basic layout set out in my mind. Though, with a cliffie like that, something tells me the initial vote's going to go in 'yes's favor.


	4. Chapter 4

**Kasek: **Good news, and bad news. Good news, I redid this chapter so it's MUCH better- some people complained about the quality, and I had to agree with them. Bad news? My laptop broke, and this desktop isn't much better.

This takes place at the beginning of Shippuuden, by the way. I apologize to those who were looking forward to Academy chapters.

Also, ignore my usage of honorifics. Please. They come, and they go, and they stick in the wrong places sometimes. Also, report any typos and stuff to me, please. Too lazy to check for the umpteenth time.

Read, enjoy, and review if you feel like it- especially if you like this version more than the old one.

Disclaimer: I own nothing!

Chapter 4

The old man sighed contently inside the main chamber of the monastery, the incense burning, the statues of their gods standing guard around the perimeter of the chamber, the statue of Buddha's massive presence not intimidating him one bit. However, there certainly was something bothering him; he was stroking his long beard- the only hair left on his head- hurriedly, obviously concerned about something. The air seemed heavy, weighted down by an obviously evil presence.

He did not bother glancing behind him as several other monks came in, obviously feeling the pressure from the evil presence. They, too, sat in front of the Buddha statue, trying to meditate and get their minds off of the bloodlust in the air. However, not all the monks came to the meditation chamber- the guards did not leave their posts, and were even more concerned than their more peaceful brethren within the walls of the monastery. They could not merely sit still, and constantly shifted their weight from one foot to the other in anxiousness.

The guards were thrown into a panic when they heard the roar of a monster come from inside the monastery- alarm bells were rung, and they all ran as quickly as they could towards the main building's door. They pushed it open as quickly as they could, and were horrified at the sight that they beheld- a large, dragon-like creature, with its skeleton apparently on the outside, faced them, the upper half of their leader hanging from its mouth. All of the other monks had been knocked into the far walls, many of them with bone-like spears sticking from their still-warm corpses. What made things far worse for them was that above every monk, the guards could visibly see the spirits of the departed, all very much frightened at the prospect of being dead.

The head monk used the last of his strength to lift his head up to face the guards. "Run... away…. before its-" He was silenced when the dragon lifted up its head and swallowed the rest of the old man whole, and then it glared directly at the guards- they flinched when red lights glowed in its eyes sockets. It spread its bony wings and let out another otherworldly roar. Most ignored the old man's dying wish, as the majority of them were former shinobi- some of them even having been Jonin. However, there were a few who did run- and they could not help but flinch every time they heard the screams of their fellow monks, both dying and deceased.

Naruto couldn't help but smirk as he looked at himself- he was now wearing the official shinigami uniform, his zanpakuto at his side, as he had finally graduated from the Academy two-and-a-half years after he had joined. It was a knowing smirk, because he knew that he would never have to face the bane of his existence that was homework ever again. He sighed contently as he saw what stood before him- the gates to the 13th Division compound, the squad to which he had been assigned- and his father's squad. Just as he was about to open the door, however, it swung open, and swept him to the side. He rubbed his face- thankfully, there was no blood- and glowered at the figure standing in the open gate- his father.

Said man was stretching. "Ah, what a day to go visit the world of the living!" Naruto quickly got up. "Oi! Is that anyway to greet your son after two-and-a-half years?!"

Minato looked to the side. "Oh, I thought that was your reiatsu I felt! You're just on time, too!"

Naruto raised an eyebrow. "Just on time for what?" And then, the realization hit him. "Wait a sec, you swung that gate open knowing I was on the other side?!"

Minato scratched the back of his head. "Uhh… maybe? Look, I have a mission to carry out- and it just so happens that you're perfectly qualified to join me, Naruto."

Naruto was obviously confused. "Huh? But I'm the shinigami equivalent of a Genin- what the heck makes me better than anyone else in this division?"

Minato seemed to teleport right next to Naruto and picked him up by the waist, tucking him under his arm- an obviously embarrassing position. "Because you, Naruto were a shinobi in life- that's what makes you qualified for this mission."

---

All was quiet at the Hero's Memorial in the early morning, but the place was not deserted- Uzumaki Naruto, or, as he had taken to calling himself, Namikaze Naruto, currently stood in front of it, gazing at the large stone he was facing. He smiled when he spotted his name on the stone- at least he had gotten that part of his life right. He heard a rustling of leaves, and was slightly surprised to see Kakashi- but was not surprised when Kakashi did not see him. Kakashi stood in front of the stone.

"Obito... Minato-sensei… Rin... Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura... sorry I haven't been around lately... I had another run of S-Ranked missions. I don't think I'm going to be on any more- Tsunade-sama thinks it's time I hang up the ninja gear and do something pleasant like gardening. I don't see why I should- I'm the best ninja she has right now, and she knows it. But... she's worried about my mental health more than anything. Apparently, the more time I spend away from here, the more my heart seems to fade... but on the other hand, it's only on the field of battle that I can honor your memories... quite the paradox, huh? So, what do you think I should do?"

Naruto smirked, and took out his cell phone. After pressing a button, he put it away, and his smirk grew wider. "I don't know. Depends on how good of a gardener you are."

Kakashi's eye widened, and he slowly turned to face Naruto. He pinched the bridge of his nose. "Tsunade-sama's right, maybe I should take it easy... I'm starting to hallucinate."

Naruto growled. "Geez, I spend two and a half years trying to get back here from the afterlife, and that's the welcome I get? Betcha Tsunade-baachan would've at least tested me to see if I was real, first."

Kakashi glared at 'Naruto'. "Alright, smarty-pants, tell me everything you know about the boy Uzumaki Naruto. Now."

Naruto sweatdropped. "Umm... see, that's gonna take a while... I mean, come on, who knows me better than myself, right?"

Kakashi eyed him. "Hmmm... although that's the kind of answer he would give, you're going to have to be more specific."

Naruto frowned. "Fine, fine, be that way! Let's see... I was born on October 10th to Namikaze Minato and Uzumaki Kushina-" Kakashi stopped him right there. "And just how do you know about Kushina? Minato-sensei's name was revealed to the public, but not hers." Naruto smirked. "Hey, I'm dead, they're dead, any of that ring a bell?"

Kakashi sighed. "Alright, you hallucination, continue."

Naruto smirked. "Aaaanyways, I don't know about Mom- guess she died giving birth to me or something like that- but Dad died sealing the Kyuubi into me, and thus I was an orphan."

Kakashi growled. "Kushina didn't die giving birth to you- she was too close to you during the sealing, and since she was so weak from having just given birth to you, the force of the Kyuubi's chakra being placed into your body killed her."

Naruto froze- Kakashi could see what was obviously sadness in his eyes. "…you should keep that to yourself, Kaka-sensei. If Dad found out about that, he'd have a heart attack."

Kakashi's hard-eyed gaze softened a little. He had seen that look on Naruto's face once before- it was the look on his face that he had held when Kakashi had found his corpse. "…alright, then. Continue your little story."

Naruto's cheery tone disappeared from his story. "I was named Uzumaki to protect my identity, and I had a pretty miserable childhood, with Iruka-sensei, the Sandaime, Teuchi-ojiisan, and Ayame-chan as my only friends. I had a major crush on Haruno Sakura, and I hated Uchiha Sasuke's guts- at least until the three of us got on the same team, anyways. Your team, I'm sure you remember. Then me and Sasuke became good friends/rivals. We were practically brothers."

Kakashi nodded- so far, so good- however, that still was pretty common knowledge.

"While on that team, we had 1 C-ranked mission to the Land of Waves, where we fought Momochi Zabuza and Haku, and where I first accessed the Kyuubi no Kitsune's power- not to mention where I first formed my nindo."

Kakashi stiffened slightly- the possibility of this guy being some enemy ninja or someone's idea of a prank was getting smaller and smaller.

"Afterwards, there was the Chuunin Exams, where I fought with Orochimaru, Kiba, Neji, and Gaara. Orochimaru killed Sandaime-ojiisan, so ero-sennin- Jiraiya- took me with him to get Tsunade-baachan to become Hokage, and taught me the Rasengan on the way. We fought Akatsuki and Orochimaru, fended them off, and baachan became Hokage."

Kakashi's body stiffened even more- 'Naruto's' knowledge was beginning to be knowledge that even he wasn't aware of- such as Naruto having faced both Akatsuki and Orochimaru within the small timeframe that he had been out of the village.

"Then, Sasuke left with those Sound ninja to go to Orochimaru, we fought, we killed each other, and that's the end of the story. Well, the part in the living world, anyways."

Kakashi sighed. "Fine then, why don't you tell me what happened in the afterlife, hmm?"

Naruto faltered. "Well, umm… you see, that is kind of top-secret info…" Kakashi glared at him. "Alright, alright, I'll tell you, geez. After I died, I met up with Dad and Sandaime-ojiisan, and they sent me to the Shinigami Academy, where I met up with Sakura. We graduated from the Academy, and poof, here we are."

Kakashi faltered. "We?"

Naruto grinned. "Yep! Which means that you'll need to convince yourself that the person behind you is real, too."

Kakashi groaned and turned around, and standing there was none other than Sakura. "Hey, sensei! Long time no see!"

Kakashi was ready to just run to the Hokage and have himself declared insane. However, he decided to take a different course- he took the cover off of his left eye, and was shocked at what lay before him- whoever these two were, real or not, they had no chakra at all- yet they weren't genjutsu either, or his Sharingan would've seen right through them.

"Alright, alright, considering that you both are wearing outfits I've never seen before, aside from your headbands, and the fact that my Sharingan registers you as here, but, well, not alive, there's a chance this is all real. Now, tell me, what's with the outfits and the swords? Don't tell me all dead people get them..."

Naruto grinned. "Nope! Like I said, we're shinigami! Cool, huh?"

Kakashi pinched himself- the pain said this was real. "And why're you here? Don't tell me that I dropped dead from exhaustion on my last mission..."

Naruto snickered. "No, no… you'd know if you were dead, trust me. We happened to be in the village, and decided that this would be the best spot to catch you."

Kakashi sighed, and drooped his shoulders. "Just happened to be here, huh?"

Sakura smiled knowingly. "Well... not exactly... we got picked from a small group of shinigami to come and warn Konoha of impending doom, and we decided that it would be nice to bring you to the Hokage's office for the briefing."

Kakashi shook his head. "So, I just head down there, then...?"

Sakura nodded. "Yep! We're gonna go down there ahead of you- don't want other people seeing us. Not yet, anyways."

The two of them took out their cell phones, pressed a button, and they disappeared. Kakashi heard a slight rustling of leaves, and he could no longer feel their presence. He took out a coin from his pocket. "Heads, this never happened, tails, I go down to the Hokage's office to double-check that this is reality."

The coin flipped in the air, and it landed on tails. "Alright then... guess I should get going." He turned back to the memorial. "Well... if this turns out to be real, I might be seeing you guys sooner than I thought I would..."

Kakashi knocked on the door to the Hokage's office. When asked who he was, he replied, and he was let in. Kakashi nearly had the wind knocked out of him by the mere sight of who was in the room- Naruto, Sakura, both the Yondaime and the Sandaime, heck, even Haku and Zabuza were in there- he decided that he wasn't hallucinating, because he hadn't put any thought to them in quite a while. Kakashi looked at Tsunade. "So, I'm NOT dreaming, then...?"

Tsunade sighed, and Kakashi saw signs that she had been crying recently. "Well, I thought it was MY dream, but seeing as how I don't normally dream, and how I've never even MET Zabuza and Haku before, I've put my disbelief on hold right now."

Minato grinned- Kakashi noted that he had a badge that said "13th Division Vice-Captain" on his left arm, and that he had two katana at his waist. "Hey, Kakashi! My, you've certainly gained some height since I last saw you..."

Kakashi was about ready to burst into tears himself. "Y-yeah... fifteen years will do that to a guy..."

Zabuza smirked, his shark teeth showing- he wasn't wearing any bandages, but he still had a gigantic sword on his back, though this one looked more like a gigantic katana than a zanbato. "Hey, Kakashi. Don't tell me that you've gone soft since we last met."

Kakashi regained his composure. "Heh... anything but."

Tsunade coughed to gain their attention. "Alright then... may I please know about this impending doom that's so bad that the higher-ups saw fit to let the dead roam the earth and let the living know of it?"

Minato deferred to Hiruzen. "You see, Tsunade... this world has been... connected, with others."

Tsunade raised an eyebrow. "And?"

Hiruzen continued. "As a result, more and more spirit particles have been leaking into this world, and now, spirits are able to manifest themselves in this world."

Tsunade nodded. "So, now people can interact with the dead?"

Hiruzen frowned grimly. "It's more serious than that. In the first place, spirits don't normally exist in this world- because our worlds are now connected, the people who die here become spirits and move around, instead of… well, whatever happened in the old system. It certainly wasn't direct reincarnation, or else Orochimaru couldn't have resurrected the first two Hokages in our battle."

Tsunade conceded that point- that made a little bit of sense.

"It wasn't so bad, at first- even those with spiritual awareness couldn't really see the spirits, and the spirits couldn't interact with the living. However, now… well, you can see for yourself. Just within the past few days, we've had reports of there being… attacks on the living."

Tsunade frowned. "Let me guess. Human souls aren't the only spirits in this universe."

Hiruzen nodded. "That is correct- and I don't mean that like I would say, Kitsyuu or Gamabunta have souls. There exists a type of soul called a Hollow- they are souls that have lost their heart, and have become twisted, man-eating monsters. In particularly, they are attracted to beings that have the ability to see them- an indication of spiritual abilities."

Tsunade's frown deepened. "I see where this is going... you think that these monsters are going to begin attacking us, right?"

Minato nodded. "Right. We've already had reports of them attacking monasteries. We're sure that the Hidden Villages are next- after all, spiritual power is one-half of what allows us to make chakra."

Tsunade pinched her forehead. "So, you want ME to break the news to my village that the dead are walking among us, and that they bring news of a virtual apocalypse?"

Naruto grinned. "That's one way to put it. We're here to patrol the area, see to it that if these monsters DO show up, that they get taken care of rather quickly."

Tsunade raised an eyebrow. "Wait, wait, let me figure it out... only shinigami can kill them."

Sakura stood up. "Not just shinigami, but... we would certainly prefer if you didn't kill them yourself, shisou. If killed by any other means than a shinigami's sword, a Hollow ceases to exist. If we kill them, they become purified, and go to live in heaven or hell like they should've done at first."

Tsunade sighed in frustration. Why was being Hokage never easy? "Alright, fine. But I'm curious- WHY is our world connected to these other worlds when it wasn't before?"

Minato coughed. "Ummm... yeah. Sorry, my bad. It was because of the technique I used to seal the Kyuubi no Kitsune. It wasn't TOO bad- only I was affected by it at first."

Haku spoke up. "Later on, when Zabuza-sama and myself died, we had been bathed in the reiatsu of the shinigami that had sealed the Kyuubi, and since both of us accepted our deaths without question, we went straight to Soul Society, so there was no conncection to be made."

Hiruzen nodded. "However, when I used it, the shinigami were ready and made the connection permanent- apparently, Minato, Haku, and Zabuza had made a good impression on them, and they wanted more shinobi-shinigami. I swear, the Chamber of Fourty-Six is even worse than the Council here in Konoha..."

Tsunade closed her eyes, and a vein in her forhead pulsed. "So, you're saying that you guys have upset the balance of the world- no, wait, the universe- and now we're the ones who have to pay for it?"

Minato rubbed the back of his head nervously when she cracked her knuckles. "Aw, come on, Tsunade-obaasan! You make it sound so much worse than it really is!"

Tsunade sighed- at least Minato didn't call her 'baachan' like Naruto did. "Well, in any case, this certainly explains why I've been getting a lot of missions asking to investigate monster sightings... I assume you've sent some other shinigami to the other villages, as well?"

Zabuza nodded. "Yeah, we're making sure that all of the places where shinobi and monks gather are covered. We were offered the chance to go to Kiri, but we decided that we'd be more welcome here. They don't forgive assassination attempts on the Mizukage so easily, you know."

Kakashi frowned. "Speaking of not welcome..." All eyes turned to Naruto. He immediately noticed the tension in the room. He grinned. "Hey, if they don't like it, too bad! I'm already dead- they can't kill me! Well, they CAN, but then I would just get reincarnated- and I doubt they want me back on their hands so soon. Especially if I end up in some other village, then they'd be in BIG trouble."

Tsunade took out a jug of sake and had a few gulps. "Look, it will take a little while for all of the important shinobi to get back from their missions- why don't you walk around town, see how many astonished looks you get or something... Also..."

She was interrupted by a loud explosion- down towards the Academy, she saw a large dust cloud, and a large creature emerged from it. It looked similar to a frog, but it was mostly white, and its face seemed almost… skull-like. Minato smirked. "We'll finish this later- time for Konoha's Yellow Flash to make a triumphant return!" In an instant, he was gone, as were Hiruzen, Zabuza, and Haku.

Naruto grinned. "One of these days, I hae GOT to get him to teach me how to do that..."

He and Sakura then proceeded to jump out the window. Tsunade took another swig of her sake. "As I was saying- how long are you going to stand there, Jiraiya?"

Jiraiya came inside through the same window Naruto and Sakura had left through. He sighed, though a smirk remained on his face. "We'll never be rid of that Naruto, will we?"

Tsunade grinned. "I'm gonna have to get the security tapes from this... I want to see the looks on people's faces when they see Naruto, and I'm gonna frame the pictures."

Jiraiya laughed. "Don't forget to get Danzo's when he sees Sarutobi-sensei, now." He extended a hand to Tsunade. "Well, shall we go and watch the show?"

Tsunade chuckled. "Fine... I'll go with you. Just this once."

As they jumped out the window tigether, Kakashi scratched the back of his head. "This day is only going to get weirder from here on, I know it..."

The frog smirked as kunai after kunai went straight through him as he cornered his prey- several children, their sensei, Iruka, knocked unconscious. The beast grinned. "Oh, I haven't had a feast like this in ages... I'll eat you and get out of here before anybody can do anything about it..." He opened his maw, and a large tongue stretched out from it and wrapped around the children.

However, when he pulled it back, he was surprised to note that the children were not in his mouth- not to mention that his tongue was significantly shorter than it had been. Looking down, he saw the end of his tongue on the ground, the children safe, and more importantly, a group of shinigami. The children watched in awe as the blond one jumped into the air and sliced the frog in half, causing it to disappear. He turned to the children. "You kids alright?" They nodded, not a one daring to speak.

Iruka got up, rubbing his head. "Oh... what hit me...?"

Minato patted him on the back. "You alright? That frog looked like it packed a nasty punch..."

Iruka looked confused for a second, and then his eyes widened in panic. "The children! They're-" Minato stepped aside, and Iruka sighed. "-just... fine. Um, thanks. You are...?"

Minato smiled. "My name is-"

"Aww, come on, dad! You just HAD to finish it before we even got here, didn't you..." Iruka froze- he'd recognize that voice ANYWHERE. Iruka gulped, and turned around slowly- there, standing behind him, was Uzumaki Naruto himself, Haruno Sakura right behind him.

Naruto froze as well- his reunions with Kakashi and Tsunade had been planned, but Naruto really had no idea what to do in this case. He took in Iruka's appearance- he was the same, and yet... not. The biggest difference Naruto beheld was that his nose-scar had been lengthened severely- Naruto did not want to know how that had happened. A more subtle difference was that his eyes had less cheer in them before. Naruto decided to speak up. "Umm... hey, Iruka-sensei. Fancy meeting you here."

Iruka sighed, and Naruto could see Iruka's eyes spring to life. He turned to the children. "Alright class, school's ending early today. Go on home, shoo!" All of the children gladly obliged, and Iruka turned back to Naruto. "Geez, Naruto... this IS where I work."

Naruto grinned, but it faltered as Iruka glared. "Now... care to tell me why you took two-and-a-half years to show yourself? I'm sure there are several people who would've preferred it if you had come back sooner."

Haku giggled in his creepily girlish way- his near-sleeveless uniform did not augment any masculinity he had. "You make it sound like you actually expected him to come back from the dead."

Zabuza snorted. "You're forgetting who you're talking about, Haku. That kid never stays down- ever."

Iruka scratched the back of his head, and it was obvious he was fighting back tears. "Yeah, well… it's kind of hard to explain, really…" He walked over to Naruto, and hugged him- a bit too tightly. Naruto gasped for air. "I-Iruka-sensei! I may be dead, but…" His sentence was interrupted by another cough. "…I need to breathe, too!"

Iruka loosened his grip a little. "Naruto… even if you are dead, I'm glad that I could see you again… I never got to say goodbye to you…"

Minato smiled, and walked over to Hiruzen. "Not every day you get to see scenes like this…"

Hiruzen scratched the back of his head. "It's all well and good that we at least have one person who can accept reality so easily, but what about the rest of the village? They'd be more than happy to see me and Minato, but what about Naruto?"

Iruka gave a wry smile when he heard Hiruzen's words. "That won't be much of a problem... I'm pretty sure that people will want to MORE than make it up to him, considering who his father is..."

Minato sighed. "Geez, I really wished Kushina hadn't died... but on the other hand, I have some choice words to give Naruto's godfather."

Naruto looked confused. "Godfather? You've never mentioned this guy before... what's he like?"

They were interrupted by the appearance of Tsunade and Jiraiya. Jiraiya smirked. "Hey, Minato! Glad to see that you're looking well."

Minato gave a growl. "Speak of the devil..."

Jiraiya raised an eyebrow. "Hey, what'd your old sensei do to deserve that kind of greeting after all these years?"

Minato growled again. "Absolutely. Nothing."

Jiraiya just stared at his student, whose eyes were now on Naruto. Jiraiya followed his gaze, and looked back at Minato. After a moment, realization dawned on his face, followed closely by horror, and his face was soon hidden by his hands. "Oh... THAT nothing..."

He looked up at Minato. "Look, I was out of town when that... disaster... struck. I thought that all three of you had died! I had no idea for years that Naruto was alive. Didn't find out until he blackmailed-slash-bribed me into training him for the Chuunin Exams. I was actually planning on taking Naruto away from the village for training so I could fulfill at least part of my duty to you! Honest!"

Minato sighed. "Alright, I believe you. You may be the world's biggest pervert, but you're no liar."

Naruto looked nearly shocked. "Wait- Ero-sennin's my godfather?"

Sakura giggled. "Hey, you should be glad he didn't know you were alive. Can you imagine having been raised by him?"

Naruto gulped, and shook his head. "Sakura- never bring this up again- EVER."

Tsunade laughed. "Alright, look, knowing ANBU, they're just waiting for my signal to show themselves, so get ready for a questioning. Alright guys, show yourselves!"

Sure enough, several ANBU and other various shinobi appeared. Naruto noted that there was nobody he really knew there, although he spotted Morino Ibiki at the front of the crowd. "Hokage-sama, are you sure these people are who they say they are? I'm sure I can pry out their secrets if need be..."

Tsunade cut him off. "No, I'm sure they are who they say they are. After all, it's pretty hard to fake being as stupid as Naruto, especially since he's been dead for about 30 months." Tsunade heard Naruto yell at her and smirked. He was just too easy to get to.

Ibiki smirked also. "Yeah, I know what you mean. Want us to round up the council?"

Tsunade nodded. "Tell them to meet us in my office at the Hokage Tower."

All of the ANBU immediately disappeared, leaving several confused shinobi still standing there, curious about the black-robed specters before them. Tsunade tried to shoo them off, but there was one Chuunin who remained- Naruto immediately recognized him as Shikamaru, and mentally slapped himself for not noticing him earlier. Shikamaru walked up to Naruto, and sighed, looking down at one of the few he had called 'friend'. "Geez, Naruto... you have got to be the most troublesome creature in all of existence, you know that?"

Naruto gave his signature combination grin/smirk. "I'll take that as a compliment."

Shikamaru nodded. "You're the only person I know that would... anyways, sorry to burst any hopes you might have, but I'm the only member of the old gang around right now. Everyone else is on missions."

Naruto frowned. "Go figure..."

Sakura walked up. "Hey, Shikamaru. How's Ino been?"

Shikamaru frowned. "She took even more damage from your death than Sasuke's, but she recovered... mostly, anyways. She'll probably have one of those girly fits of tears and hugs when she sees you. This whole ordeal is troublesome... I certainly wouldn't mind knowing what's going on, but I can wait- this looks like one of those things that they'd announce to the whole village."

Sakura nodded. "Yeah... you seem kind of calm, though. You ARE talking to dead people you know."

Shikamaru stared up at the clouds. "Hey, if I'm insane, oh well. Better to just go with the flow, if you ask me. Anything else is-"

He was cut off by a dual cry of "Too troublesome" from the two shinigami. Naruto snickered. "You haven't changed a bit, Shikamaru." Minato called out to them. Naruto sighed. "Look, I'll catch you later. Have a stupid meeting to attend."

Shikamaru nodded. "Yeah, bureaucracy's too troublesome for my tastes. Try not to fall asleep, alright?" Naruto nodded, and after giving Iruka a hug goodbye- and promising to come see him again and go out for ramen before he left for Soul Society again- he followed the Sannin back to the tower with the rest of the shinigami.

Surprisingly, the council took it rather well. They were actually pretty enthusiastic at the prospect of having the Sandaime and the Yondaime Hokages back with them, even if they were spirits. They weren't too happy with the fact that the shinigami refused to fight for them, insisting on only fighting Hollows, as their normal operating code was to not even let the living know that they existed. The council was also concerned with the fact that shinigami that were apparently equal in power to their Hokages were going to be sent to the other villages, although the announcement of this news was softened by the that there was only one other 'shinobi-shinigami', and they had chosen to remain in Soul Society for the time being.

Tsunade sighed. "So, that's EVERYTHING we ought to know, right?"

Minato's cell phone rang, and he held up a finger to Tsunade as he answered it. "Hello? Oh, Ukitake-taichou! Yeah, so far, so good... they seem to be taking to it rather well... oh, no... they didn't... but that's political suicide! Look, can I call you back? I've got to defuse this bomb before it goes off." Minato snapped the cell phone shut.

Tsunade frowned. "Minato, care to explain?"

Minato pinched the bridge of his nose. "Despite the fact that we have a vice-captain, a third-seat , and two fourth seats here, they want to send both a captain and a vice-captain to check up on us..."

Naruto frowned. "Let me guess- it's the Second Division."

Minato nodded. "Second. So you know what that means..." All of the Konoha shinigami frowned and stared at the floor.

Tsunade chuckled. "Who could possibly be so bad that the thought of them coming here has even you down, Naruto?"

Naruto didn't look up. "...Uchiha..."

A door materialized in the middle of the room before Naruto could finish stating who it was, and two figures stepped out- a fierce but grim looking woman with a white haori over her uniform, and none other than Uchiha Itachi, a badge saying "Second Division Vice-Captain" on his left arm. The mere presence of the woman nearly paralyzed some of the younger council members. Those who could move did so and had their kunai to Itachi's throat in an instant. Itachi chuckled, and merely walked through the knives. "That won't work, you know."

Tsunade growled. "Itachi... how dare you show your face here after what you did..."

Itachi smiled. "Asuma said that same thing to me once...You do realize that I'm dead, right? Killed by my own little brother..."

He made an obviously fake sob. "Oh, the tragedy of it all... brother against brother, the last of their clan..."

He resumed his usual demeanor- everyone who had ever met him was slightly creeped out by the display. "We are merely here to make sure everything is running smoothly before we attempt to do the same thing with another village, that is all. Also, Soifon-taichou wished to meet living shinobi- she is the commander of our special forces, which aside from the obvious differences in powers, are exactly like our shinobi."

A faint smile appeared on Soifon's lips. "At the very least, you have good reaction times, and the ability to function in the presence of a captain. You should be glad that shinigami aren't allowed to kill the living- I can think of a shinigami or two who would gladly kill you just to see what makes you so different than a regular human. After all, all of our shinigami who were once shinobi have shown extreme promise, whether in the areas of combat, kido, or healing.

"Of course, it will be a while yet before even Namikaze-kun or Uchiha-kun could hope to become shinigami captains such as myself- it normally takes hundreds of years to come close, although Uchiha-kun has advanced to the position of vice-captain within two-and-a-half-years, and with but a bit more experience, Sarutobi-san looks to become the next vice-captain of our First Division."

Tsunade frowned. "And how did Itachi reach a position in less time than Sarutobi Hiruzen, who was considered a god among shinobi in life?"

Itachi gave a slight smirk. "I will admit, the last vice-captain of our division was rather... incompetent. He had achieved his status through his clan rather than through his own ability. I will say, though, he has improved greatly since having been usurped from his chair by a brat of but 20 years. The right motivation does wonders for personal growth."

Tsunade growled. "Like the motivation you gave Sasuke?"

Soifon frowned. "And what did Uchiha-kun ever do to you?"

Naruto growled. "He turned his back on our village and murdered his entire family- distant cousins, aunts and uncles, even his own parents!"

Soifon glared at Itachi- it became obvious that even he feared this woman's wrath. "Itachi, you know I don't like traitors… however, it was something that you did in life… so, it's not something that you'll be executed for. However, just to make sure you don't get any ideas, we'll discuss this matter later. Am I clear?"

Itachi nodded stiffly, and his lips were slightly parted, revealing how clenched his teeth were. Soifon turned back to Tsunade. "I doubt any punishment I can come up with would satisfy your village, but seeing as he's already left the mortal plane, further punishment isn't so bad, right?" Everyone present smirked in agreement. "So, then. I assume you have no objections to our presence on this village?"

Tsunade smirked, her eyes on Itachi. "As long as you never station Itachi here, I think that we won't have any objections. We don't, do we?" All of the council nodded in consent while glaring at Itachi- Soifon had restrained her reiatsu soon after she had arrived, so those that didn't move before now could.

Soifon nodded as well. "Thank you. We'll be taking our leave now." They walked back through the door, and they disappeared, the door doing the same.

Tsunade frowned. "What's this about Sasuke killing Itachi? He had been killed by a bolt of lightning... not to mention that Sasuke was killed by Naruto's Rasengan."

Naruto could feel a lot of glares coming his way. "What? He killed me too, remember?"

Sakura sighed. "Sasuke... is one of the Hollows."

Tsunade's frown deepened considerably. "I see..."

An ANBU appeared and whispered in Tsunade's ear- her frown reached maximum deepness. Hiruzen spoke up. "Anything concerning us?"

She gave a half-hearted nod. "Sort of... Akatsuki has kidnapped the Kazekage. Looks like you guys are getting another Kage to your ranks."

Naruto grew terrified- he wished his deductive reasoning was wrong. "K-Kazekage? As in, Sunakagure? As in, Gaara?"

Tsunade nodded. "Sabaku no Gaara, the Godaime Kazekage."

Naruto looked ready to cry, and Minato put his hand on his son's shoulders. "We have a duty to perform here- and part of that duty is to not interfere with the affairs of the living."

Naruto growled at his own father. "If that's the way it is, then fine- I'll go and just make sure he doesn't turn into a Hollow. That's one of our duties too, remember?"

A smirk slowly grew on Hiruzen's face. "You know... just being here means interfering with their lives. I think that the higher-ups are going to need to write a whole new rulebook for this world... so, I say we take advantage of this situation and get on Suna's good side- since my captain's stiff about the rules, I'll stay here and defend the village while you guys go off and have fun, alright?"

Minato took a quick look around himself and saw that he was clearly outvoted. He scratched the back of his head and sighed. "Fine, but you're taking responsibility for this, Sarutobi. And Naruto, I'm only letting you tag along because you know Gaara- Sakura's coming because she knows how to heal us better than any medic-nin. Stay hidden if we come across anything remotely dangerous, understood?"

Naruto growled, but nodded slowly anyways.

Hiruzen's smirk widened. "Good. So, who's going on this little expedition?"

All of the shinigami besides Hiruzen himself raised their hands. Tsunade sighed. "Guess I'll have to wait for your introduction to the village, then... I'll send Kakashi with you. Temari too, while I'm thinking about it- she's in the village, and I doubt she'd want to miss out on a rescue attempt for her little brother. Team Gai is set to come back soon, so I'll send them when they do."

Zabuza spoke up for the first time during the meeting. "Me and Haku will stay here and wait for them- better for them to see us with their own eyes before they go looking for us. Plus, Haku's pretty skilled in detecting reiatsu, so we'll be able to find the others without a problem."

Tsunade nodded. "Alright, then- I'll inform Kakashi and Temari. Meet them at the gates as soon as possible. You should head to Sunakagure first, to gather information, and then head out and rescue Gaara."

Minato shook his head. "Geez, Tsunade... you sound like you're in charge of us."

Naruto smirked. "Makes me feel alive again!"

A tear threatened to come out of Tsunade's eye as they left, a single thought in her mind- _I wish that was true, Naruto... I wish that it was true._

**Kasek: **This is among the longest chapters I've ever written- 15 pages, from first AN to the right before this one. Which is kind sad, really. Anyhoo, if you're wondering about the shinobi's placings within the Gotei 13:

Hiruzen: 1st Division, 3rd seat.

Itachi: 2nd Division, 2nd seat (vice-captain/fukutaichou)

Sakura: 4th Division, unseated member of the 14th Advanced Relief Team

Haku: 6th Division, 4th seat

Zabuza: 11th Division, 4th seat

Minato: 13th Division, 2nd seat (vice-captain/fukutaichou)

Naruto: 13th Division, unseated

Naruto and Sakura are unseated because they only recently graduated from the Academy- however, their abilities outrank those of other Shinigami their rank due to their lives as shinobi, and Sakura graduated sooner than Naruto did, so she's actually a bit stronger than him right now.

ALL of the placements have importance.

I got some negative reviews for this one, I knew it. I messed up Soifon's personality, I have yet to reveal the method of Sakura's demise, and there was a general lack of emotion (which I hope I fixed). As for Sakura, after the Gaara arc, alright?

So, review, and talk about anything besides my next update. BTW, the plot will move into the BLEACH-verse later on.


	5. Chapter 5

**Kasek:** Alright, let's try and see how successful this chapter is, hmm? Please remember to point out any inconsistencies or errors in your reviews- I really do appreciate it.

**Chapter**** 5**

Temari was never one to be surprised at anything. However, there had been one thing that had surprised truly surprised her, more than two years ago- when her little brother, Gaara, had suffered his first defeat in battle at the hands of a Genin of Konohagakure- a boy named Uzumaki Naruto. Naruto had changed Gaara, somehow- the death rate of people who got on Gaara's bad side dropped tremendously- as in, it was non-existent. Sure, some still got injured, but killed? Not a one. And Gaara claimed that it was all because of Naruto.

When they were sent to help rescue Uchiha Sasuke from Orochimaru, Gaara earnestly wanted a chance to speak with Naruto. But... that chance never came. Gaara was enraged when he saw Naruto's corpse- and further so when the village celebrated his demise. He went on a rampage, bringing harm to all that he saw. He had only stopped when that Hyuuga girl had burst out from the crowd and wept before Naruto's corpse that he regained control. The village elders wanted him brought to justice- but Tsunade would not have it. Gaara was, as she said, the 'Uzumaki Naruto of Sunagakure'. Both had been the sons of their village leaders, and both were given their curses to aid their villages. However, Naruto had known more love than Gaara ever had... and Gaara saw that in death, Naruto received more love than he himself would if he did not change his ways.

When they went back home, Gaara began doing everything he could to help people- from teaching at the Academy, to chasing down criminals, to helping old ladies with their groceries. Soon, everyone began liking Gaara- especially since he had the monster inside of him under seemingly complete control. Defeat at the hands of a little boy had most likely changed Shukaku, as well. Eventually, he was instated as the new Kazekage- Gaara cared little that the village elders were doing this to try to gain control over him. He only wanted to help his people, and his abilities were second to none in the desert- and the village wasn't called Hidden Sand for nothing.

Now, it was time for Temari to be surprised by Uzumaki Naruto once again.... not that she realized it. She was currently in the middle of walking back to her home village from Konohagakure when her name was yelled out. Looking back, she was surprised to see who it was- Hatake Kakashi, as well as three others... who all looked suspiciously familiar, though their uniforms were something that she'd never seen before. Temari sighed. "What is it...?"

Kakashi straightened. "Ah... it seems like your brother, the Kazekage, has been kidnapped. We've been assigned to go help- and I assume that you want to come with us."

Temari grit her teeth. "Gaara... I had a bad feeling, but..."

Kakashi nodded. "It'll take three days to get their. We should get moving immediately."

--

Temari observed the the two children with the group. She noticed the blond boy was overtly tense. He was trying his hardest to stay with the group, but it wasn't that he was too slow- but rather, more like that he felt that the others were going to slow. She moved closer to them. "Hey, do I know you two from somewhere?"

The two former Konoha Genin paled. However, it was not they who answered, but Minato. "Oh, probably. They were shinobi until about two and a half years ago."

Temari looked suspiciously at the blond man. She had to admit, he was attractive, but there was something... off, about him. About all three of them. "'Were' shinobi? One doesn't quit being a shinobi... not at that age. The only way to get out of it is..." She didn't continue- death was not something she wanted to talk about, with Gaara's life on the line.

Minato smiled. "Is either complete incompetence, complete inability to perform the job, or death. We kind of took the last route."

Temari looked at him like he was the craziest person in the world. "Well, you're obviously _not dead._ Explain this to me."

Minato nodded. "Well, we are dead. We're ghosts. Spirits. Or, to be most accurate... _shinigami_."

Temari smirked. "Yeah, right, you're not going to get me with some load of crap like that. Well, what are your names? Mine's Temari."

Minato grinned. "Namikaze Minato, at your service."

Sakura smiled pleasantly. "Haruno Sakura."

Naruto's grin was larger than his father's. "Namikaze Naruto! But you might know me as Uzumaki Naruto!"

Temari's face froze in recognition- her body kept moving of its own accord, propelling her forward towards their destination. "U-Uzumaki... Naruto?"

Naruto nodded. "That's me! It's been a couple of years, so it's not surprising you don't remember me..."

Temari grit her teeth. "Th-that's not possible... you're dead... I saw your corpse... there was a hole in your chest larger than my fist... h-how..."

Minato smirked. "Like we said. We're already dead. Our physical bodies are already rotting in our graves... but our spirits are here, ready to continue fighting, until the day our spirits die, and are reincarnated."

Temari groaned, and covered her forehead. "Can... can we just switch the topic, please? Like to why these Akatsuki guys would want to kidnap Gaara? It can't be just because he's the Kazekage..."

Kakashi nodded. "It's more that they're after what has made him Kazekage..."

Temari looked puzzled for a moment. "What made him... you don't mean, Shukaku, do you?!?"

Kakashi nodded. "'fraid so. Naruto, you remember the incident with Itachi, right?"

Naruto nodded stiffly. "Yeah... they were after me, too..."

Sakura was pleasantly surprised. "This is the first time I've heard about it."

Naruto shook his head. "Sorry, Sakura-chan, it's just... well, we haven't been able to talk much these past two years, and..."

Sakura smiled. "Hey, it's my fault for being smarter than you and taking all of those extra courses and stuff. I guess one year was a bit much to go for..."

Minato smirked. "I became a shinigami a lot faster than that."

Naruto scowled. "Hey, you're the Yondaime Hokage! The strongest shinobi who ever lived! That she managed to get as close to you and ojiisan as she did is a testament to her abilities!"

Temari faltered, and nearly fell- she managed to keep moving, though. "Th-the Yondaime Hokage?!? I thought you looked familiar, but...!"

Minato nodded. "Yondaime Hokage, Namikaze Minato, at your service."

Temari put two and two together. "Wait, you said 'Namikaze'... and Naruto said 'Namikaze'... does that mean..."

Naruto pumped his fist. "I'm the son of the Yondaime Hokage! Isn't that the greatest? I mean, yeah, it would've been better if I had lived to be Hokage myself, but..."

Temari shook her head. "Enough distractions! Naruto, why did they go after you, too?!?"

Naruto narrowed his eyes. "I'm sure you've noticed the similarities between Gaara and me... and I'm sure you know that I beat him back during the invasion, right?"

Temari glared at him. "So?"

Naruto frowned. "A twelve-year-old boy, capable of defeating the monster, Shukaku... where would he get the power to do that?"

Temari thought for a moment. It struck her like lightning- all of the details added up in her head. "Y-you... were the carrier of the Kyuubi no Kitsune?"

Naruto nodded, and grit his teeth. "That's what I hate about those Akatsuki... they're just like the villagers... always looking at us with those eyes, treating us like we weren't human... me and Gaara, we were the exact same. But... Gaara was even lonelier than I was. And now, Akatsuki is targeting him, too... I won't let him be alone for this! That's why we have to save him!"

Temari smiled as she saw Naruto's eyes tear up. _Thank you.. Naruto. Maybe Gaara will get that chance to talk with you after all..._

Minato sighed, a hint of regret in his voice. He looked at Naruto, and then at Temari. "Unfortunately... you were only half-right earlier, Temari-san."

Both Temari and Naruto were confused. Naruto spoke up. "Half-right? About what?"

Minato looked pained to say what he was trying to say. "You see... she said the wrong word. Or rather, she didn't say the right one. True, Naruto was the carrier for the Kyuubi no Kitsune... but, he still is, too."

Naruto, too shocked for words, stopped on a tree branch. The whole group stopped with him, and Naruto looked up at his father. "I-I... I still am? B-but... I thought the seal was supposed to be released when I died..."

Minato sighed. "I'm sorry for telling you this now of all times, Naruto... but... you see, the higher-ups didn't want me to. Not before you became a full-fledged shinigami."

Naruto placed a hand on his stomach. "But... before I died, I was able to talk with that thing in my mind. How come I can't do it anymore?"

Minato sighed. "I... strengthened the seal on you, during that month we were together."

Naruto didn't know what to say, but he attempted to talk anyways. "I... see..."

It was obvious that, as Naruto's father, he was feeling just as much pain as Naruto was. "I... only wanted to help. I didn't want it to influence your afterlife, after it had caused so much pain in the world of the living."

Naruto smiled, but his eyes were still sad. "...thanks... but doesn't that mean that Akatsuki could still get their hands on the Kyuubi?"

Minato shook his head. "It's possible, but... the problem is..."

Naruto looked worried. "The problem is...?"

Minato sighed. "The Kyuubi's physical energy. When you died, its physical energy was left inside your corpse, because the seal was applied to your body. Yet, at the same time, that seal was applied to your soul- and so, only the Kyuubi's spiritual energy resides in you."

Naruto's face contorted, showing that he was more than confused. "So, they'd need my spirit and my body to recreate the Kyuubi?"

Minato shook his head, and raised one of his two zanpakuto. "No. They'd need more than that. This sword, for one. You see... I only sealed half of the Kyuubi into you. The other half... I sealed into myself."

Naruto was shocked. After a second, Temari asked a logical question. "But... you died... so what happened to the physical energy of the half that was sealed into you?"

Minato froze, completely. Sweat rolled off of his chin. "U-um... now that you mention it... I... kinda, sorta... don't know."

Kakashi sighed. "Sensei... well, if we don't know what happened, I doubt Akatsuki does. Let's... just go, alright? We don't exactly have the time to stop and chat."

Temari growled. "Yeah! My brother's life is on the line here! Move it, slow-pokes!"

Naruto sighed, and whispered to Sakura. "It's her fault, why's she mad at us?"

--

They were greeted at the entrance to the village by a guard. "T-Temari-san! We've been waiting for you! Please, this way!"

Temari nodded. "What's the situation? I know about the Kazekage, but only that he was abducted by Akatsuki. I need more details, now!"

The group began following the guard through the village. The guard was obviously nervous to be in Temari's presence- she apparently outranked him. "W-well, apart from Kazekage-sama being abducted... your brother, Kankuro, was wounded when he tried to pursue, and-"

Temari interrupted him. "Kankuro?!? What happened?! Where is he?!"

The guard swallowed. "A-as I was saying, he's in the infirmary. He's... been poisoned, ma'am. He doesn't have more than half a day to live..."

Sakura gripped her sword tightly. "Take me there. I can help."

--

Temari burst into the room first, followed by Naruto and Sakura. Kakashi and Minato were the last to enter. Immediately, the old lady at the other end of the room's eyes widened. "White Fang...!" In an instant, she charged... and in an instant, Minato blocked her blows. She backed off, and growled. "I remember that time... my son's enemy... White Fang, you shall pay for what you did!"

Kakashi held up his hands in a defensive gesture. "W-wait! I'm not..."

The old woman growled. "Don't bother arguing!"

She was interrupted by another old man, who seemed just as ancient and decrepit as she did. "Nee-chan... take a good look. He may look like it... but that is not the White Fang of Konoha."

The woman did indeed take a good look this time. She burst into laughter. "No waaaay! I was just pretending to be stupid!"

Kakashi sighed in relief. That was... "But, that still doesn't clear up... who this Yellow Flash lookalike is."

Minato spoke up. "Yellow Flash? Been a while since I've heard that... but you realize he's been dead for

nearly sixteen years now, right?"

The old lady nodded. "I guess you're right..."

Sakura rolled up her sleeves. "More importantly, let me see Kankuro-san!'

After a few moments, Sakura began chanting apparent nonsense to herself. Soon enough, she ran her hands over Kankuro, and her hands began glowing. Some liquid began oozing out of Kankuro's wound, and soon enough, it stopped coming out. Sakura placed the liquid in a nearby bucket, and leaned back, exhausted, giving a sigh of relief. "That takes more out of you than you'd think... I don't think there's any more poison in his body, but if there is, it shouldn't be enough to be fatal."

A knock was heard on the door, and a voice came from the other side. "Excuse me, may I come in?"

Each shinigami gave a different reaction to the voice. To Sakura, it was relief. To Minato, it had brought panic. To Naruto, it brought confusion. A guard opened the door, and in walked... a very non-descript shinigami boy. He had what appeared to be a medical utility belt, and he was carrying around his sword in his hand, instead of on his waist. His face was rather plain, as was his medium-length, dark hair. "Oh! Sakura-san! I didn't realize you were here, too! I thought you were in that, uh... that other place, what was it called..."

Sakura bowed. "Yamada-sempai! I apologize, but given the circumstances, we were forced to come here for a short while."

Yamada looked at her and smiled. "Oh, okay. Me and two of the vice-captains were assigned here just a few minutes ago, and Matsumoto-fukutaichou wanted me to check to see who was in here."

Minato looked somewhat relieved. "Matsumoto... and who was the other one? You're Yamada Hanataro-kun, right?"

Hanataro nodded- he seemed pleased that such a high-ranking man remembered his name. "H-hai! The other one was Kusajishi-fukutaichou, sir!"

Immediately, Minato's look of relief turned to panic. "K-Kusajishi?!? Why'd they send her?!? Who's in charge of this operation?!? This is political suicide, even worse than sending Itachi to Konoha!"

Naruto was confused, being the rookie, as was everyone member of the living. "Um.. who's Kusajishi-fukutaichou?"

Minato collapsed to his knees. "She's only a walking catastrophe, that's all... a living time bomb..."

Sakura explained it in more detail. "Kusajishi Yachiru, Vice-Captain of the 11th Division... and the youngest shinigami in existence, present company excluded."

Naruto had a picture of an attractive, if hyper teenager in his head. "So, what's she like?"

Sakura sighed. "Well..."

The door burst open, and in walked... a little, pink-haired girl. Naruto wouldn't have given her much thought... if she didn't have on a shinigami uniform, as well as the 11th Division Vice-Captain's badge. Actually, nevermind, he still didn't give her much thought. She was pulling her zanpakuto with a string, and the sheath had little wheels attached to it. Behind her stood a blond woman who reminded Naruto of Tsunade- physically, anyways. She was wearing the Vice-Captain's badge of the 10th Division.

The little girl looked around, and walked up to Naruto, pulling her zanpakuto along with her. She stared up at Naruto, and he stared down at her. The staring contest continued for a moment, until she pointed up at him. "Your new name is... Whisker-chan!"

Naruto looked offended. "Wh-wh-what?!? Why you little..." He was restrained by Minato, whose frown told Naruto that he shouldn't complete that sentence. The woman smiled at Minato. "Oh! Minato-kun! What a pleasant surprise! What are you doing here?"

Minato put one hand on the back of his head. "Oh, well, er... it's part of the thing we're doing to help out these people, Matsumoto-san."

Matsumoto frowned. "How many times do I have to tell you, Minato-kun, call me Rangiku-chan!"

Minato crossed his arms, letting Naruto go. "Nope. Not doing it. And how many times do I have to tell _you _to at _least_ call me 'Minato-_san_?'"

Rangiku crossed her arms over her chest... an impressive feat. She puffed up her cheeks childishly. "Aw, come on..."

Yachiru moved over to Sakura, grinning. "Nee-chan! Nee-chan!" Sakura crouched down and smiled. "Yachiru-chan! Sorry I haven't been able to visit you, but I've been busy...

Yachiru jumped over Sakura and landed on her back, her arms wrapped around the older girl's neck. "Nee-chan! Nee-chan! Carry me, carry me!"

Sakura sighed. "H-hai."

Yachiru frowned. "I want more enthusiasm. Say 'Hai, Yachiru-chan!'" Naruto was somewhat amused when Sakura did exactly that, smiling while she did so, not to mention saluting her.

Hanatarou walked over to Kankuro, confused. "Umm... what's wrong with him? He doesn't look so good..."

Sakura walked back over to the bedside. "W-well, he was poisoned... I think I got most of the poison out, but..."

Hanataro panicked. "You _think_? Oh no, oh no, that's never a good thing..." He began chanting to himself, and he ran his hands over Kankuro's body. After a moment he stopped, and sighed in relief. "Oh, so you did... that's a relief. No wonder they call you a genius... to be able to do this, having only been a shinigami for a year... it took me forever to get those kinds of skills down."

Chiyo looked at Hanataro and Sakura suspicously. "Those techniques.... they aren't the kind usable by human beings. Who _are_ you people?"

Baki, the man who was once the sensei to Temari, Kankuro, and Gaara, gave a short bow to her. "I apologize, Chiyo-baasama. These people... claim to be shinigami, come from the afterlife. It's... rather complicated, you see, but at the very least, they aren't human. They have proven to be inaudible, intangible, and invisible to the average person. But to shinobi, who have heightened spiritual abilities, they seem perfectly normal to us."

Chiyo sighed. "I see... you're not here to take me away, are you? I warn you, I can put up a nasty fight!"

Matsumoto chuckled. "Oh, no, don't worry. We're just here to protect the people from evil spirits and stuff... well, we're supposed to, but I don't know if they're going to attack or not..."

Yachiru smiled from her spot on Sakura's back. "If Ken-chan were here, we wouldn't need anybody else!"

Naruto tilted his head. "Ken...chan?"

Sakura sighed in exasperation. "I'll explain later..."

Yachiru jumped off of Sakura and landed on Kankuro's chest. "What's up with him? Why's he sleeping?"

While Sakura panicked, Kankuro coughed. "Wh... what's going on? What the..." His eyes widened when he saw Yachiru standing on him. "Get off of me, you little brat!" She complied, and Kankuro tried to get up. Unfortunately, the effects of the poison had not yet worn off, and he was not only unable to do so, but it hurt to try... a lot. He stared at the ceiling after the pain went away. "What... happened?"

Baki walked over. "You tell us. We found you lying in the desert, wounded, poisoned, with your puppets' broken remains surrounding you."

Kankuro sighed. "I... see. They got away, huh?"

Kakashi glanced at him nonchalantly. "Could someone take me to the scene? If there's even a bit of their scent left, I can follow it."

Kankuro managed to sit up a bit. "That... won't be necessary. You can just follow Gaara's scent. If need be, I caught a bit of cloth off of the guy who didn't kidnap Gaara. Sasori"

Kakashi seemed impressed. "Making a success from a failure... a true Suna nin."

Chiyo looked at Kankuro with all seriousness in her eyes. "Kankuro... are you absolutely sure that one of them was Sasori?"

Kankuro was surprised to see her and the old man. "Chiyo-baasama! Ebizo-jiisama!"

Ebizo did not bother with an explanation. "Kankuro... tell us."

Kankuro sighed. "Yeah... Akasuna no Sasori. He said it himself."

Matsumoto was obviously curious. "'Akasuna no Sasori'? How'd he get a title like that?"

Minato clenched his fist. "He was a shinobi of great talent... Sasori is his given name. As for 'Akasuna', 'Red Sand'... that's the color he often left the ground he fought on."

Yachiru frowned. "Scary... bet Ken-chan could leave it a deeper red, though!"

Naruto gulped in fright. He didn't want to meet this 'Ken-chan'... ever. Kakashi closed his eye in thought. "Sasori, huh? Can you tell us more about Akatsuki?"

--

Tsunade had her most serious look on her face as she faced Team Gai at the gates to the village. "Your mission is the same as Kakashi's- go to Suna and support them in any way you can. Understood?"

Gai gave her a thumbs-up. "Right!" He immediately sneezed right after that. "Darn hay fever..." He pumped his fists. "Yosh! Everyone! Let's get to Suna in one day!"

Lee shook his head. "No! Sensei! Let's get there in half a day!"

Neji whispered to Tenten. "What are those idiots thinking? It takes three days to get to Suna, even at top speed..."

Tenten gave an exasperated sigh. "_Please_ stop saying nonsense like that, guys..."

Tsunade waved her hand, and Zabuza and Haku appeared right next to her. "These two will be accompanying you to Suna. You were out of the village when they first arrived, so they'll just explain themselves to you if need be."

Tenten's eyes lit up at Zabuza's sword, and she ran to his side, examining his sword, and the words flowed from her mouth in an excited stream of near-gibberish. "A zanbato? Cool! I have a few of these... who made this? Excellent quality! I don't recognize the metal. It kinda looks like steel, but it feels a lot lighter. And the handle- exquisite weaving! I need to get myself one of these, and-"

Zabuza cut her off. "You mind? We need to get going, you know."

Haku giggled in his creepily girlish manner. "Oh, come on Zabuza. I'd think you'd be happy for Kasumi to receive praise. This girl seems like an expert in weapons."

Tenten frowned. "Kasumi? What kind of a name for a zanbato is that? I'd think a zanbato would have a more manly name, wouldn't you?"

Zabuza growled, his shark teeth showing. "Look, I didn't pick the name, alright? She has a mind of her own."

Tenten's eyes sparkled once. "A sentient sword?!? I've only heard of them in legends!"

Zabuza snorted. "They're no myth. I could name plenty of others off the top of my head." He eyed Haku's katana. "Haku's Fubuki, for instance."

Tenten immediately beset Haku. "Fubuki? See, now thats what I'm talking about. Oh, a katana, nice. Is it made of the same material Kasumi is?" Haku nodded. "I see, so, were they made by the same person, or...?"

Haku sighed. "It's complicated. We sort of made them, but at the same time, they sort of made themselves." Seeing Tenten's questioning look, he sighed. "L-look... can we just go now, please?"

Gai pumped his fist. "Yosh! Let's go!" Immediately, Gai and Lee dashed out the gates. Tenten gave another exasperated sigh. "I hate it when they do this..." Both her and Neji dashed after them, leaving the shinigami behind. Tsunade raised an eyebrow. "Aren't you supposed to go after them?"

Zabuza smirked. "We're just... giving them a head start."

Tsunade frowned. "Giving Gai and Lee a headstart is like quitting the race before it starts."

Haku smiled. "Well, I think it's about time to show off a shinigami's speed, ne?"

The two immediately disappeared- Tsunade barely managed to see them in the distance before they disappeared again. She sighed, and scratched the back of her head. "Why can't anybody be normal in this village...?"

--

Kankuro looked at Naruto. "Don't I... know you from somewhere...?"

Naruto gave a small smirk. "Name's Namikaze Naruto... but you'd know me as Uzumaki Naruto."

Kankuro looked at his hand. After a moment of trying, he managed to get it into a fist. Words that Gaara had once told him ran through his head. _To work hard, to make your own path,without running away to a lonely isolation... If I do that, then maybe someday... I'll be like him._ A memory of a younger Gaara then appeared. _I have never thought of you as siblings... get in my way, and I will kill you._ His train of thought returned once more to the older Gaara. _Bonds with others... up until now, they were nothing but hate and killing. And now, I understand something. Suffering, sadness... and joy. They can all be shared with someone else. Uzumaki Naruto... through my interactions with him, this is what I feel he taught me. He knew the same suffering that I went through, and taught me that I could change my ways._

Kankuro looked at Naruto, who was having his hair pulled by Yachiru. "Uzumaki, I mean, Namikaze Naruto..." Yachiru stopped pulling on Naruto's hair, allowing Naruto to give his full attention to Kankuro. "Please... save my brother."

Naruto smirked. "Don't worry. It's the least I could do... for someone who visited my grave." As the shinobi and shinigami filed out of the room, the full meaning of what he said dawned on Kankuro. He looked at Temari, fear in his eyes. "Wait a sec... isn't... Naruto..." She nodded. "B-but... that would make him..." Temari nodded once again. Kankuro immediately fainted from the shock. Temari smiled. "Naruto, huh? Looks like... you're Gaara's guardian angel..."

--

Baki stopped the shinigami (plus Kakashi) from leaving. "If you would just wait a few minutes, we could have some skilled shinobi join you..."

Temari came up to them. "I'm going too!"

A voice came from above. "Temari, you stay here and fortify our borders." Everyone looked up, and saw Chiyo standing on a rooftop. "_I _am more than enough to represent the shinobi of Suna."

Temari tried to object. "But... Chiyo-baasama!"

Baki shook his head. "That would be too much for you..."

Chiyo growled, and jumped off of the roof. "Don't treat me like some old lady!" Everyone was shocked as she hit the ground hard. As she slowly stood straight up, her face grew dark. "I've wanted to give my cute grandson some love for quite a while now..."

Minato smirked. "Alright guys, let's go!" Everybody ran out the gates- except for Naruto. Temari stared at him. "Aren't you the one that promised to bring Gaara back?"

Naruto chuckled. "Well, yes. But, I have to give them a headstart- you see, I'm kind of... forbidden to go. I'm gonna follow them without them knowing it."

Temari raised an eyebrow. "From what I've heard about you? They're probably expecting you to follow them."

--

Two members of Akatsuki- so marked by their black cloaks, which carried red cloud symbols-, stood on a river, a large owl-like creature floating right next to them. They stood under a shrine gate, which was in front of the cliff wall. High up on the cliff, a paper reading 'kin', or 'forbidden', was attached to the wall. Slowly, a large section of the cliff raised up from the river, revealing a cave. The three beings entered, and were greeted by what appeared to be a man hidden in the shadows, but you could see straight through him- a hologram of sorts. The only things visible about him were his eyes- pinkish eyes which had four rings around the center- and the clouds on his robe identifying him as an Akatsuki. "You're late. Prepare it immediately."

The taller Akatsuki frowned under his hat. "The Jinchuuriki was stronger than I thought, un." The owl disappeared, revealing none other than Gaara's body behind. His sand armor was cracked, giving him the appearance of an old, worn out clay figure. The hologram placed his hands together to form a handseal, and then placed his hand on the ground. A loud rumbling proceeded, and a gigantic statue rose from the ground, a bit in its fanged mouth, and its shackled hands, standing in front of the statue, were held in front of its face, fingers stretched skywards.

The silhouette put his hands together again, and said, "Assemble." Immediately, several more such silhouettes appeared, one on each finger, except for the left ring finger and the right thumb. The man who summoned them sighed. "Now... let us begin."He disappeared, and then reappeared on the right thumb. He put his hands together, and the bit in the statue's mouth fell away, allowing the statue to open its mouth. "From this point onward, this jutsu will take three days and nights to complete. Everyone, be mindful of your real bodies. Zetsu, use your real body as a lookout. Use your longest range."

The most bizarre of the silhouettes- one of a man with what appeared to be the jaws of some creature coming from his robe, which opened just below his neck, spoke up. "...I know."

Another silhouette spoke up. "Three days... I'd think it'd take longer, with Kisame gone."

The leader-figure gave a prompt retort. "If you really think so, then we should get started as soon as possible."

All of the figures- Sasori excluded- raised their hands in front of them, and concentrated. Each of the fingers that had a person standing on it glowed, and the statue seemed to roar. The leader opened his eyes. "Fuuin Jutsu, Genryuu Kyuu Fuujin!" Immediately, nine dragons, made out of energy, sprung from the statue's mouth, and they headed straight for Gaara. As soon as they touched him, there was a flash of light, and an explosion.

--

Tenten yelled ahead to Gai and Lee as they dashed through the trees. "Hey! You guys are going way too fast! We've been running non-stop for an entire day! Can't we take just a little break?"

Lee smirked as he looked back at the Tenten, Neji, Zabuza, and Haku. "Tenten, you lack discipline."

Haku smiled. "It's not exactly a problem for us. Physical exercise doesn't really affect us."

Neji frowned. "That's something that's been on my mind. You two lack chakra- yet you can keep up with us. Who _are_ you?"

Zabuza smirked. "Well, if you want us to put it bluntly- we're spirits. _Shinigami_. Shinobi who died, and decided that we didn't want a normal afterlife."

Neji's frown deepened. "If you're dead shinobi, then where did your allegiance lie?"

Zabuza frowned. "We were nuke-nin from Kirigakure."

Tenten's face lit up. "Wait a sec... Kirigakure... zanbato... Momochi Zabuza! One of the Seven Shinobi Swordsmen!"

Zabuza smirked. "Thanks. Apparently, my name's not gone just yet."

Neji frowned. "Hey, we've got company."

They all looked ahead, and a dog was sitting on a branch in there path. It called out to them. "Gai!"

Gai looked surprised, and everyone stopped. "Pakkun! What are you doing here?"

Pakkun frowned. "We were ordered by Kakashi to follow the Akatsuki's scent. They're in the River Country, between Konoha and Suna. Your group was closer, so I came to lead you to them."

Lee frowned. "I see..."

Zabuza smirked. "We'll be first to get there? Good, I wanted to get some action off of this."

Pakkun nodded. "Follow me. I'll explain everything on the way."

Nearby, a man that looked like 'Zetsu'- odd jaws and all- was half-way emerged from a tree trunk. Oddly enough, his left side was completely white, while his right side was covered in what appeared to be a black metal. The jaw structure was completely green, causing it to appear plant-like.

Back in the chamber where Akatsuki had gathered, Gaara was inside of a bright sphere of light, that seemed to be made of the nine dragons from earlier squirming together in a ball-shape. Gaara, noticeably, was screaming his head off in pain as some substance was being extracted from his mouth and eyes. Zetsu's silhouette spoke up. "We have enemies from Konoha closing in on our location. The closest ones that I know the names of are... Maito Gai, and Momochi Zabuza."

The leader's eyes showed a hint of recognition. "The first I don't know, but that second name... it seems familiar."

Zetsu's voice changed- it sounded.. artificial, nearly robotic. "Momochi Zabuza- one of the former Seven Swordsmen of the Mist. He's supposed to be dead, and claims he still is. The person with him matches the description of his apprentice, Haku, a boy with the Hyoton Kekkei Genkai. He's picked up a katana recently."

Deidara chuckled. "Wish I had that Hyoton thing. I could make ice sculptures. Watch them melt."

Sasori growled. "So who's this Gai guy?"

Zetsu replied in his more human voice. "Dunno. Some Jonin from Konoha. I think he might be a taijutsu specialist. They have a Hyuuga with them, as well as some girl, and a boy who could pass as Gai's son. Oh, yeah, there was some little ninken with them. A pug, doubt it can do much besides track."

Another silhouette spoke up. "Hey, whoa, wait. Explain the thing about him still being dead."

The artificial voice spoke up again. "They called themselves shinigami. To quote, 'shinobi who didn't want a normal afterlife.' I recorded it, but... they don't show up on the recording.

The man swore. "Well, that's... that's great. Just... peachy. If they're really shinigami, how are we supposed to beat them?!?"

Yet another silhouette spoke up. "Calm down, Hidan. You're immortal, remember?"

'Hidan' growled. "Calm down? CALM DOWN?!? They're shinigami! They who can claim any life! This... this goes against my religion, man!" He swore again. "This is... this is messing with my mind! I'm having a hard time concentrating on this jutsu now!"

'Yet another' sighed. "You're not the one who has to face them, moron."

Hidan relaxed. "Oh. Yeah.... yeah! You're right!"

Deidara spoke up. "So, uh, who does? I mean, someone has to, right, un?"

The leader closed his eyes in thought. "Well... I could use _that_ jutsu..."

Zetsu interrupted the proceedings. "No need. It seems that they have provided for their own distraction."

Deidara looked surprised. "Oh? What kind of distraction?"

Zetsu stood silent a moment before answering. "The dragon kind."

--

Lee looked at the two shinigami, who had jumped to the ground and told them to stop. "Halt? Why? We must hurry to our friends!"

Zabuza began pulling his sword off of his back. "Yeah, but therein lies the problem- someone's decided to interfere."

Neji scanned the area with his Byakugan. "I don't... see anything. But..."

Gai nodded slowly. "This pressure... you know what the cause of it is, then?"

Haku nodded. "We told you we were shinigami, right?"

Tenten looked worried. "You mean, another shinigami is interfering?"

Zabuza shook his head. "Worse. We came to this world to protect it from evil spirits called Hollows. This one's the biggest I've ever had the opportunity to battle.. To tell the truth, I was wanting a challenge, but... not this much of one."

Lee gulped. "Well... where is this spirit?"

Zabuza held his sword in front of him. "It should appear... right... about... now."

Right on cue, what seemed to be a giant hole ripped itself open in the air, and a giant, skeletal leg emerged and slammed its clawed foot into the ground. Another one followed it, and slammed into the ground as well, causing the very earth to shake. The creature's head emerged- a great dragon skull, with white hair spilling onto the sides of its great face. The rest of its body followed, its great wings and the row of bone spikes that ran down its spine from the back of the head to the tip of its tail being the most prominent features. Zabuza growled, baring his jagged teeth. "An Adjuchas Menos... I didn't think I'd ever get to meet one...

Haku spoke to Team Gai. "Listen up! We need as much help as we can get against this, but you have to use ninjutsu! Genjutsu, taijutsu and normal weapons will only get you killed."

Tenten looked like she was ready to cry. "But... but... taijutsu and weapons are all we know how to do!"

Lee smirked. "We'll just have to see about taijutsu not working!" Lee leapt in front of the group, combat ready. "Great bone dragon! I wish to know your name before I engage you in combat!"

The dragon spoke after a moment of examining those who stood before him. "You may call me Bancyning, green one. Remember it well- it is the name of the one who will defeat you in that same combat."

--

Zetsu spoke up once more. "Another group, mixed. Hatake Kakashi of Konoha, Chiyo of Suna, and three shinigami."

Hidan swore. "Three?!? That brings the total to five! What's the afterlife have against us?!?"

Zetsu continued. "One of them looks like the Yondaime Hokage, though I can't be certain. The second appears to be a young boy, possibly a relation. The third shinigami is a pink-haired girl, unidentifiable."

Deidara groaned. "Please tell me that they get they're in the process of getting 'distracted' by giant monsters..."

Zetsu did not speak for a moment. "I would not say 'gigantic', but..."

--

The group stopped in the middle of the road when confronted by a Hollow of their own- particularly, a crimson, four-tailed fox Hollow, with long, human-like red hair flowing from the back of the mask. It seemed to grin when it spotted its quarry. The voice that emanated from it was feminine, and almost seductive sounding. "Ah, welcome, to the last place you'll ever see. My name is Helrood Stormvos- I am the one who will have the pleasure of devouring your souls today."

**Kasek: **-gasp- Hollows? Instead of Akatsuki members? Well, Itachi and Kisame ARE dead, and I don't know who the second replacement is yet (Obviously, Tobi's the first). Do you guys want an existing character or an OC? Drop a line, let me know. BTW, please don't complain about sicking adjuchas on these guys. You see that filler ep recently? Where unnamed shinigami take down an army of gillians like they were nothing? Yeah. Let's pretend we're using that power scale, and thus we need more powerful hollows to make a challenge.

Edit: Removed Hiruzen from this chapter, now for the next. Shame, had some good gags revolving around him...

BTW, **15 PAGES**. I think that's a new record for me for one chapter.

Bancyning- I think it's pronounced like 'bankai-ning'. Not sure, never was good with those pronunciation symbol things.


	6. Chapter 6

**Kasek:** So, the battle against the hollows begins. Please, let me know if I get my Japanese right.

**Disclaimer: I own neither BLEACH nor Naruto.**

**Chapter 6**

Lee nodded as he took in the greatness of his foe. "Bancyning... let our match... begin!" Immediately, Lee appeared over the dragon's head, intent on smashing his leg into Bancyning's skull. However, the large hollow managed to lift his front leg and block the attack, and sent Lee flying into a tree. He narrowed his eyes when he realized that there were now large cracks in his arm where he had had blocked Lee's kick, and all of the humans present were astonished when the cracks began to heal.

Zabuza frowned. "Self-regenerating, huh?"

Haku smiled. "We were always told that hand-to-hand was suicide to use on any hollow that wasn't of the lowest rank... looks like Soul Society didn't take into account the kind of taijutsu that exists in this world."

Lee smirked as he got back up. "I told you... taijutsu would work."

Bancyning tilted his head. "Were you paying attention? Such direct attacks.... won't work on me. I can regenerate my entire body if need be."

Zabuza smirked as he tightened his stance. "You're a hollow... you of all people should know that there is one thing that hollows cannot regenerate... and that is..." In an instant, Zabuza was right above Bancyning's head, and sliced downwards with his zanpakuto. This, too, was blocked with the hollow's arm, and the crack left this time was far deeper than the one left by Lee, though it was but one crack. Zabuza smirked as he lept back, taking his sword with him. "...your head. After all, if you really could regenerate your entire body... you wouldn't feel the need to defend yourself, would you?"

Neji nodded. "Yes... although I cannot see spirit energy or physical energy as well as I can see chakra, it seems that all of his power is concentrated in the mask, and that it merely flows out to the rest of his body."

Bancyning grit his teeth as his arm healed. "You think you're so smart... but let's see how you handle this!" He lifted his arm and flattened his hand, pointing all five of his claws directly at his enemies. The large claws seemed to launch from his fingers like rockets, and all of his targets barely got out of the way in time.

Gai watched as the large bones drilled their way into the distance, obliterating everything that got in their way. "If that were to hit... then we would be finished."

Zabuza growled. "Well, that sucks... I can't use my zanpakuto to the fullest under these conditions... Haku?"

Haku, who had jumped in a direction opposite Zabuza, nodded in understanding. He held his blade in front of him, his eyes showing determination. "Freeze and shatter... Fubuki!"

In an instant, the sword changed- instead of a katana, he held in his hands a giant fan, standing even taller than himself. Attached to the fan was a long chain that ended in a large weight, which was half of Haku's height, and many times his weight. The living were in awe of what had happened- they had never seen a weapon do such a thing before, not even Tenten. They were more amazed when Haku swung the fan, and created a large gust of wind. Bancyning did not find it too difficult to withstand the wind, but when the gust ended, he was surprised to find that his entire right arm had been frozen. Closing the fan, Haku swung using the bottom of the fan, causing the chain to arc towards Bancyning, bringing the weight along with it. It smashed into the block of ice, and as the incantation had promised, shattered the leg.

Bancyning growled as a new leg quickly grew out of his socket. "To make these bones shatter... just how low did that gust of wind bring the temperature?"

Haku smiled as the weight came back, and landed next to him, causing a large cloud of dirt to arise. "Well, I would assume it wasn't so low that it caused the ice to be unbreakable."

Bancyning's large yellow eye focused on Haku's smiling face. "I see... and I would assume that that's an upper-level elemental zanpakuto, am I right? It can control both water and the wind, as well as thermal energy."

Haku nodded. "Yes... you seem to know quite a bit about zanpakuto for a hollow..."

The dragon's large tail shifted to his right as he seemed to close his eyes. "As you said, I am an adjuchas menos... that title carries much with it."

Lee frowned at Haku. "Haku! Please, do not interfere! This is my fight!"

Haku looked surprised, but nodded anyways. "If that is what you wish... but if it appears that you are going to die, I will interfere."

Lee nodded. "That is fine by me..." Lee knelt down, and removed the weights he kept under his leg-warmers. "Please clear the area!" He released the weights, and they caused an explosion of dust when they reached the ground, creating two deep holes on either side of him. Everyone jumped high into the trees, intent on not getting caught in the crossfire (though Haku had minor difficulty finding a branch that would support Fubuki's weight).

Bancyning snorted at the display. "Removing weights, now? It might have been more advantageous to keep them on, with the added weight to your kicks."

Lee shook his head. "I'll have to disagree with you on that one..." In the blink of an eye, Lee had disappeared, and had reappeared under Bancyning's jaw, delivering the same kick he had once delivered to Sasuke. The blow made several small cracks along the bottom of the dragon's jaw, and as his front began to lift into the air, Lee sprung into the air and started rapidly kicking in the same spot.

Quickly, Bancyning was standing on his hind legs, exposing his underside to the air. Lee was startled when he realized that the rib bones were growing in length- and were aimed at him. Lee managed to twist his body so that the tips of the ribs- which may have well been spearheads- didn't touch him, but he was thrown aside by the force of the sides of the bones brushing against him. As Lee landed on his feet, Bancyning remained on his hind feet, and his ribs changed back to their original size. Gai seemed most pleased. "Excellent, Lee! Show him the power of youth!"

Zabuza raised a non-existent eyebrow. "Power of... youth?"

Gai nodded. "Yes! Lee's power of youth allows him to overcome all obstacles!"

Bancyning narrowed his eyes at Lee, who had already taken his combat-stance. "Not even this 'power of youth' can bring him to defeat an opponent such as I. I will show you the true meaning... of despair."

--

Minato drew one of his zanpakuto- this one having a yellow weave on the hilt. "I apologize, but I have no intention to die again any time soon."

Sakura gulped as she felt the energy coming from her opponent. It was paralyzing- she was finding it difficult to breathe, let alone stand. Minato eyed her, noticing her weakness. "You should go back a ways. Just being here might paralyze you... lower-level shinigami are not meant to fight such opponents."

Sakura nodded. "H-hai." She immediately ran back the way they came, hoping not to get in the crossfire that would result.

Minato turned to Chiyo, concern in his eyes. "You sure you want to stick around? This opponent... is a very strong one, even as far as adjuchas menos go."

Chiyo grunted. "Is that supposed to scare me? I have no clue what this thing is, why should I be afraid of it?"

Minato sighed. He probably had a lot of explaining to do. "Well..."

His sentence was interrupted by a blast of wind coming from the direction of their opponent. Their attention became focused on Helrood, who looked mildly annoyed- the orbs that represented her eyes had narrowed into ovals. Minato noticed that her mask was split into four colors- brown, dark blue, red, and green, each color taking up a full-fourth of her mask. The brown, in the lower left, had white zig-zag lines moving through it, while in the upper-left blue section, the lines were configured in curved lines, like waves. The white in the upper-right framed the red in a flame-like outline, and the green in the lower left had several curved lines parallel to each other, reminiscent of wind. "I am what you would call a conglomeration of thousands of evil spirits. What you should be afraid of is that I eat the souls of beings such as yourselves as snacks."

Minato frowned as he took a battle stance. "And what you should be afraid of... is the fact that even though I am a vice-captain, I am much stronger than the rank would imply." He ran his hand down his sword, tracing his finger in a zig-zag pattern. "Strike... Kyudenmaru!" His zanpakuto was transformed- the blade was now yellow, and shaped in the same zig-zag pattern that Minato had made with his finger, causing it to look like a lightning bolt. The handguard, too, had taken on a similar zig-zagging property, giving the appearance of a bolt of lightning arcing around the blade in a circle.

Helrood seemed amused. "That looks like quite the zanpakuto... lightning element, I assume?"

Minato smirked. "Why don't I just... SHOW YOU!" Minato swung his sword, and a lightning bolt arced from the tip of the blade and struck where Helrood was standing. However, she was not there anymore- Minato noticed that there was a large hole in the ground where Helrood had once been. He heard a rumble beneath the ground, and saw it begin to bulge. He jumped backwards as Helrood emerged head first from the ground, her jaws wide open. As she emerged from the ground, she growled towards Chiyo and Kakashi, who wisely moved back towards Minato. Minato smirked. "Please... digging through the ground? You're going to have to be more original than that, to get me."

Helrood seemed to smirk, two of her tails swaying behind her. "If you say so... but who said I was done?" It took Minato a moment to realize that two of Helrood's tails were missing and similarly, her mask had changed- now it was only blue and brown. The two warriors turned to find that there was another menos right behind them- this one also had two tails, but its mask was red and green. It opened its mouth, and a torrent of flames poured from its mouth. All three of the shinobi (ex in Minato's case) managed to leap to the side, but were surprised to hear the sound of rushing water coming from behind them. Turning, they saw that a large amount of water was being expelled from the blue-and-brown Helrood's mouth, causing a large wave that headed right for them. First, though, the wave traveled through the flames, the water itself becoming steaming hot as a result. Minato swore, placed the hilt of Kyudenmaru under his arm, and grabbed Chiyo with his left hand, and Kakashi with his right, and jumped as high as he could, landing on what appeared to be the air itself. They watched the wave stop, which was causing the whole area to be enveloped in steam.

As Chiyo panicked, obviously not liking being so high in the air, Kakashi spoke to Minato. "She can split?"

Minato nodded. "Bet her powers are split among the clones..."

They turned around when they felt Helrood's presence above them- yet another Helrood was standing on the air, facing them, her body perpendicular to the ground. This one's mask was purely green, and she had only one tail. "My, my, what observant little insects. I was about to show you that ability myself." She opened her mouth, and with a roar, a mighty gust of wind blasted them back towards the ground.

Looking down, they saw that there were three more one-tailed Helroods waiting for them below. The red-masked one opened her mouth, and again, a torrent of flames rushed towards them. Minato swore- as a shinobi, he knew what happened when you mixed wind blasts with flames. In a flash of lightning, they were out of harm's way as the two blasts collided, resulting in a large sphere of fire that caused the very air around it to distort from the heat. Minato, now on the ground, let go of Chiyo and Kakashi as he observed the intensity of it. "This menos... she really knows what she's doing."

As the four clones merged together, the menos smirked, the long red hair coming from behind her mask blowing in the wind. "Why, of course. They are my own abilities- I of all people should know how to use them to their fullest."

Minato smirked as he took a battle stance once again. "Well, I'll give that right back to you- I, too, know how to use my powers to their fullest." Minato disappeared in a flash of lightning and appeared on the other side of Helrood, the small thundercrack echoing into the distance.

Helrood turned around, her eyes narrowed. "While that may be faster than the _shunpo_ some shinigami seem to flaunt... it's useless, considering that your location can be easily determined."

Minato grinned. "We'll just see about that!" The next flash of lightning seemed to encircle Helrood, and she was shocked- while her opponent had not seemed to move, she had could feel the blood pouring down her sides. She was downright outraged at the fact that he had apparently even made two shallow cuts in her mask. Minato's grin remained on his face. "So, you sure you want to continue fighting me?"

--

Bancyning's body began to change shape- quickly, his dragon-esque body shifted so that he was more humanoid, though he still stood at such a height that Lee didn't even come up to his knees. He smirked. "Let's see... how you deal with me when I fight like this." He reached his right hand up to the back of his neck, and Lee was shocked when he pulled out his spinal cord, a new one regenerating in its place immediately, the old one forming a spined whip of sorts. Lee was not shocked due to the creepiness of such an act- but the familiarity of such a thing.

"You... that fighting style... I've seen it before..."

Bancyning tilted his head. "You've seen? _My_ fighting style? My, my... now that is odd."

Lee nodded. "Yes... a man I fought, more than two years ago..."

Zabuza growled, and yelled at Lee. "What do you mean, you've seen it before? This is an adjuchas menos! They take decades upon decades to form! They don't form in two years!"

Bancyning snorted. "Well, if you're so familiar with my fighting style... let's see how you counter it!" He brought his arm back, and the whip curled up a bit. He then stretched his arm out to the side, and then swept it towards Lee. The result was that the whip, following Bancyning's arm motions, swept- and sliced- through the many trees to his side, forcing Haku and Neji to jump back several more trees. Lee, knowing that dodging would be pointless- and, indeed, would still be pointless if it were more humanly proportioned- he reached inside of himself, and unlocked the first of the Eight Chakra Gates- the Gate of Opening- and was able to kick the giant whip away, and it amusingly hit Bancyning in the face.

As he checked his mask for more cracks, he glared at Lee. "No human.... should be that strong... very well. I accept you as a worthy opponent." He discarded the spine whip, and instead held his right hand out in front of him, the fingers flattened together. They began to merge together, and soon, his entire right arm below the elbow was a large sword. Again, he swung it at Lee, but this time, instead of kicking it away, Lee jumped onto the sword, and again jumped at Bancyning's head. However, Bancyning quickly twisted his body and smacked Lee aside with his great bony wings, causing Lee to embed himself in a nearby tree.

Lee grunted as he removed himself from the tree. "It seems... I will have to up the ante in order to defeat you..." He looked towards his sensei, Guy, who gave a thumbs-up and smiled- Zabuza grunted in pain as the light reflected off of Guy's teeth and into his eyes. Lee gave a similar gesture, and again reached deep within himself.

Bancyning was surprised as he felt Lee's spiritual power rise yet again. _His power just keeps going __higher and higher... who is this kid?_ He was beginning to doubt if he'd be able to beat him, but then realized that there was no way that the boy could possibly kill him with his bare hands and feet. That decision was reversed when Lee's skin turned red, and his chakra began visibly wrapping around him. Before Bancyning could blink, Lee had disappeared, and he could feel his bones shatter piece by piece. His arms detached from his body, as did his wings, and eventually his legs. As his body free-falled to the ground, he felt a great force hit him in the bottom-half of his mask, causing his entire bottom jaw to disintegrate as his body started falling in the other direction. Lee's power returned to normal as Bancyning hit the ground, and the boy was obviously exhausted. "Looks like... I win..."

Bancyning, however, was not finished. His tail- now pointed towards Lee- began extending rapidly, the tip sharper than most spears. Before Lee could react, the tail was knocked aside by the large weight attached to Fubuki. As it returned to Haku's side, Haku smiled. "I apologize, Lee. You didn't look like you were in any position to defend yourself"

Lee shook his head as he fell to one knee. "It's... alright. It's my fault for not removing the tail."

They were not surprised when Bancyning regenerated his arms, allowing him to flip himself onto his stomach and face them. Lee was surprised by what he saw- underneath where the dragon's jaw had been was anther one- a human one, complete with flesh, that actually moved when he spoke, the skin a dark brown. "So, you think I'm beaten?!? I can still fight! I will continue to fight until you all are dead!"

--

These same words came from Helrood's mouth. Minato sighed. "I see... you know, there's something I've always wanted to try with a menos. I wonder.... what's under that mask of yours." In another flash of lightning, Helrood could feel her mask slipping. As the thunder faded from her hearing, she brought her paws up to her mask, and began to panic as the lower half slipped off, exposing the lower-half of a human face.

"You... you'll pay for this... I swear it..."

Naruto was watching from the safety of the trees, his cloaking device worn out a short while ago. He was in awe of his father's skills- even in death, he deserved the name "Yellow Flash". He looked towards his zanpakuto- he had not had it long, so he did not know what its name was, let alone what abilities the sword possessed. But... he hoped that it was something cool like Kyudenmaru's abilities, so that he could protect all that was precious to him.

Kakashi frowned under his mask. "Stop playing around, sensei! We have a mission!"

Minato glanced towards the old woman. "Yeah, yeah, hold your horses, I'm wrapping up right now."

Helrood, knowing it was pointless to hold up her mask, began to charge straight towards Minato, forgetting that she had ranged abilities. "I'm going to tear you to pieces, _shinigami!_"

Minato tightened his stance and smirked as his opponent rushed towards him. However, as the mask slid off of her face, Minato's own face slowly went from confident... to horrified. "Y-you... you're..."

--

Lee looked between Bancyning and Haku. "Who... what is he? I thought he was just some monster, but now I'm not so sure..."

Haku nodded. "What we didn't get to tell you... is that hollows were all once human at one point or another..."

Everyone's eyes widened. Gai was absolutely stunned. "Wh-what? Human?"

Zabuza nodded. "Haku's right. Hollows are formed when dead humans descend into madness. There are multiple ways for them to become hollows, but the end result is the same- a heartless, soul-eating monster."

Bancyning smirked under his mask as his legs began to regenerate. "Heartless? That may well be in my case, but... even hollows are capable of kindness."

Zabuza pointed his sword at Bancyning. "Don't let him fool you- hollows are all in need of purification. That's what we shinigami do, with our zanpakuto."

Tenten looked at Zabuza's sword. "So, those swords have the ability to purify hollows... let them become humans again?"

Zabuza nodded. "Human souls, at any rate. But... I don't think it works on menos. Menos are formed when hollows, unsatisfied with eating human souls, begin to eat each other... and the result is a gillian-class menos. An adjuchas- like Bancyning here- is formed when one of those hollows that forms a gillian surpasses all the others in power, and takes over the body."

Lee gulped. "So... the personality that took over this hollow... it's Kimimaro's, isn't it?"

Zabuza growled. "I told ya, kid, it takes decades for an adjuchas to form! There's no way that someone you fought with could be a part of this!"

Bancyning interrupted their theories. "Kimi...maro... the name does sound familiar. I believe that that is the name I once had while I was alive."

Everyone was shocked. Haku shook as he talked. "Y-you... you were completely in control, even after you became a hollow?!?"

Bancyning shook his head. "You misunderstand... Kimimaro was the name I had while I was alive. I am the hollow that was inside of him- Kimimaro is now nothing more than a sobbing voice in the back of my mind, crying "Orochimaru-sama" repeatedly, pathetically, like a baby for its mother."

Lee growled as he managed to stand up again. "You... don't talk about Kimimaro like that! He was a noble warrior, even if he was my enemy!"

Bancyning sneered as he looked down at Lee, his body now completely regenerated. "And what are you going to do about it? You're not fit to fight, and I'm good as new!"

In an instant, Gai appeared next to his pupil. "Lee doesn't have to do anything... after all, you still have five other opponents!"

--

Everyone froze when they saw Minato's blood spilled on the ground. He coughed, bearing with the pain as he looked into Helrood's emerald eyes. "You... your face... it's just like..." Helrood pulled her claws out, confused at the shinigami's behavior. "Ku...shina's..."

Naruto dashed out of his cover, and stood between Helrood and Minato, zanpakuto raised, eyes set defiantly. "You... I won't let you touch one hair on my father!"

**--**

**Kasek: **So, thoughts, opinions, etc. will be appreciated. Anyways, next chapter will be the end of the fights with the menos.

..my sister renounced me as her brother because of what I did with Kushina. Although she's done this many times before, she sounded almost serious this time. Ouch.

Anyways, zanpakuto explanation time.

Fubuki (Blizzard)- with a wave of the fan, Haku can freeze anything. With a flick of the chain, he can smash what he's frozen. Very useful.

My original concept was that of a giant ice-axe (showing Haku's willingness to be a tool) named Hyousetsumaru. The activation code was "Come down upon the frozen land." He could smash with the blunt side, rip into his opponent's with the pick, or stab them with the spike (the spike allowing him to freeze whatever he stabbed). I forgot about it before I wrote this scene, so if you guys want me to, I'll change it. Especially since Temari already has a giant fan...

Kyudenmaru (Ball lightning-maru)- Allows Minato to shoot lightning, as well as travel with the lightning he shoots. It seems overpowered, but it does have a weakness that high-level opponents may exploit. His ultimate attack is... nah, I'll save it for later. It's cool, though.


	7. Chapter 7

**Kasek:** Yeys! I'm updating this! Hope you guys enjoy!

Stormvos growled at the young shinigami in front of her. "Out of my way, brat! I'm going to kill him!" Naruto refused, and instead slashed at her. She raised her arm, and Naruto was surprised when his sword didn't cut through it. "I said... OUT OF MY WAY!" She pushed, and Naruto was sent flying. Minato's eyes widened as he managed to register what was going on.

"Na...ruto!"

Stormvos turned her attention back to Minato. "Now for you!" Minato disappeared in a flash of lightning, and reappeared by Naruto.

"Naruto... are you alright...?"

Naruto grit his teeth as he got up. "You're the one with a hole in your chest, why are you asking me?"

Minato coughed, some blood trailing down his chin. "Heh... I guess... it's the father in me..."

Stormvos eyebrow twitched, and she snarled. "Feh, you humans and your emotions... I don't understand it..."

Naruto was on his feet now, and got between Minato and Stormvos, sword raised. "I... I won't let you hurt my father!"

Stormvos charged him for a moment, and then she slowed down to a crawl. Naruto's eyes widened as everything around him seemed to stop. He heard the clink of metal on metal from his left, and he saw some sort of man coated completely in thick, blue-with-gold-trim armor. It wasn't samurai armor- that much Naruto knew. He had some weird helmet that completely covered his head, with what appeared to be a hole shaped like two rectangles intersecting (or maybe a thick letter 'v') so that he could see. The man took another step forward. "Namikaze Naruto... my name is..."

Naruto blinked. "Huh? Your name is...?"

The man sighed. "Strange... I thought for sure you'd be ready..."

Naruto blinked again as time began moving again, and Stormvos grabbed him by the throat, and held him high. "That's it... I'm going to kill you slowly..." She began emitting reiryoku, and Naruto could see some of it being channeled into his body from her arm. "Let's see if this has an effect on you..."

Naruto grit his teeth. "I... won't... let you!" His own spiritual energy exploded outwards, the pressure of it causing Stormvos to let go. "This reiatsu...! Who... are you...?"

Naruto's eyes seemed to glow. "My name is Namikaze Naruto! And I'm not going to let you hurt my father!"

Stormvos put a paw to her forehead as her face contorted in pain. "Argh.... what is this feeing.... Why do I feel like..... I should know that name...." Her spiritual energy came forth once again, and focused around her face. The energy solidified, and her mask reformed. "Keh... I've got a major headache, now... I'm letting you guys go. But be warned... if we meet again, I _will_ kill you..."

A hole in reality opened behind her, and she walked through it. Naruto could only growl as it closed again, and the two shinigami (and one shinobi onlooker) were now alone. Minato coughed again. "Naruto... go get Sakura.... She's in the Fourth Division, she can fix this, partly...."

Naruto, struck dumb by the sight of his father so injured, merely nodded, and then reached out to feel Sakura's reiryoku, and could feel her coming straight for them. A moment later, she appeared by Chiyo and Kakashi's side, and looked around for Naruto and Minato. Naruto waved at her, and when she saw them, she dashed right over. Her eyes widened when she saw Minato's wound. "Namikaze-fukutaichou, you're hurt!"

Minato gave a slight smirk. "So you noticed... mind patching me up?"

--

Bancyning growled again as he sat up, having been knocked over _again_ by a combination attack from Haku and Neji- Haku had frozen his legs, while Neji had used a technique to push him over. Bancyning noted that it was similar to the _Bala_ technique he had seen used by other Hollows- condensed, well, it was chakra in this case, fired off from the hands and used primarily to batter the opponent. He broke off his legs at the knees and regenerated them again, and grunted. "That's it... I suppose I will call this a draw. Consider yourselves lucky in this regard."

A large black hole in the air appeared, and Bancyning jumped through it. Lee cheered as the hole closed behind the great menos. Zabuza grunted. "Great... I wanted to get a menos on my record... the guys are never going to let me live this down."

Haku giggled. "You could just not tell them."

Zabuza shook his head. "Nah... no action at all is even worse than not winning."

Pakkun sighed. "Can we get going now...?"

--

Zetsu sighed. "It looks like... the team with Namikaze Minato has chased off the creature that was attacking them, though Minato was injured."

Hidan laughed. "So, even the great shinigami bleed, eh?!"

Zetsu nodded. "However... it seems that the pink-haired girl is capable of healing him."

Hidan swore at the thought. "That's... just great. I feel sorry for you guys, having to deal with the Yondaime Hokage."

Deidara snorted. "If we're lucky, we'll get to leave before they get here, un. If we're really lucky, we face off with them and kill them."

Sasori closed his eyes. "...if we're lucky."

--

Naruto had the decency to look ashamed as his father glared at him. "Any reasons you decided to disobey orders?" 

Naruto sighed. "Besides a strong need to come along on this mission? Not really. Besides, it all worked out in the end, right?"

Minato groaned. He knew Naruto was going to say that. "That doesn't mean that that was going to be the outcome no matter what! You're lucky your unnatural amount of reiryoku was enough to intimidate her!"

Naruto looked his father in the eye. "Speaking of her, what happened to you out there?! You see a pretty face and you let your guard down?!"

Minato did _not _like where this conversation was going. "Naruto, it's not like that at all!"

Naruto grit his teeth. "What about Mom, huh? What would she say if she saw you act that way?"

Sakura gasped when she saw Minato slap his own son. "Darn it, Naruto, listen to me!"

Naruto looked up at his father, shock in his eyes. "D-Dad?"

Minato sighed. "I don't know how to break this to you, but... I think... that that _was_ your mother."

Naruto gulped. "Wh-what?"

Minato nodded, the motion making Naruto flinch. "Her face... was just like your mother's."

Naruto looked down at the ground. "....Kakashi-sensei said... that mom died during the sealing, from the force of the energies present... which means she died shortly after being exposed to a shinigami's reiryoku... which I guess could've turned her into a spirit like it did Zabuza and Haku... but without a shinigami to guide her..."

Minato hugged his son, tears rolling down his face. "Please... don't say anymore..."

Naruto gulped, but nodded. Chiyo sighed at the sight. "Geez... what an emotional family... How did such a man get to be Hokage?"

Kakashi chuckled. "Well... what can I say? The guy was a talented shinobi."

--

Team Gai and company arrived in front of the boulder that hid the Akatsuki and Gaara inside the cave. Gai looked at Zabuza and Haku's feet. "...if you don't have chakra, how are you standing on the water?"

Zabuza shrugged. "Spirit beings can gather reishi underneath our feet and stand on that instead. Works in the air, too."

As Gai nodded, Neji activated his Byakugan, the veins around his eyes bulging from the stress. His eyes widened at the sight. "A-amazing... I don't think... I can really describe what's going on in there..."

Gai grunted, and dashed towards the boulder, punching it. He sighed as he watched ripples of energy dissipate across the boulder's surface. "A barrier, huh?"

--

Their leader sighed. "It's getting noisy outside..."

Sasori grunted. "Looks like we're going to have to fight our way out after all..."

--

Naruto grit his teeth as he leapt from tree to tree. "Come on! We have to save Gaara!"

Minato sighed at his son's behavior. "Come on, now... if you were paying attention, Zabuza and Haku have already arrived there... we don't need to hurry anymore than what we are now, considering that it's only a short distance left... Besides, _you_ can't go any faster."

Chiyo snorted. "Why do you care so much about Gaara, brat?"

Naruto's gaze softened for a bit. "Because... me and Gaara... we're the same."

Chiyo raised an eyebrow at the phrasing. "The same? And what's that mean?"

Naruto shook his head- finding the words to use was hard. "Because... just like him, I... I grew up alone and hated in that horrible darkness. If... I didn't have the people I did to help guide me through that darkness, I... I could've turned out exactly like him... well, the way he was before I gave him a beatdown, anyways. I heard... that after I died, Gaara visited my grave often before he left here to go home... He needed a friend, and yet... right when he thought he had found one... I died. So, I want to be there for him now, whether he lives through this or not... because right now he needs me."

Kakashi starting jumping alongside her. "Naruto... is the host for the Kyuubi no Youko. I doubt you could find anyone who understands Gaara like that in either Konoha or Suna... You know, something I've noticed is that... without saying much, Naruto could always become friends with anyone... I remember the day he made the supposedly heartless Demon of Kirigakure cry with just his words. Though Zabuza himself will probably never admit that to anyone..."

Chiyo smirked at that. "I've lived long, and seen many things... I've learned much about the world. When I learned that alliances with other countries were in name only... I came up with a method to protect Suna. ...I was the one who used the jutsu to seal Shukaku into Gaara. I did it for the village, but the result was only hardship... and even though we avoided other villages, one of those other villages is trying to save us... What I did was most likely a mistake... and now I've gotten so senile that I give up with ease..." She looked up ahead to see Naruto and Sakura chatting as they moved along. "Youth... such possibilities... I'm envious."

Kakashi chuckled. "Hey, you've still got quite a ways to go yourself. You're young enough, aren't you?"

Chiyo laughed at that. "Well then, maybe a senile old fool like me can still help..."

--

Lee shook his head. "What do we do?"

Gai crossed his arms in annoyance. "We have to break the barrier, but..."

Tenten brought up the question on everyone's minds. "...how?"

Kakashi's voice came from across the river. "That's a _Gofu Kekkai__._"

Gai snorted in annoyance. "You're late... Kakashi."

Kakashi smiled underneath his mask. "We... ran into some trouble, that's all."

Lee's eyes widened in shock at who was with Kakashi. "Sakura-san...? Naruto?"

Naruto scratched the back of his head nervously. "Oh, um... hi, Lee."

Sakura seemed very shy all of a sudden. "L-Lee..."

Neji was very surprised. "You two... are shinigami as well?"

Naruto chuckled. "Yep! I'm still a newbie though... my dad here's a _real_ shinigami!"

Minato patted Naruto on the head. "Aw, stop, you're embarrassing me."

Gai's eyes widened at the sight. "Wait a second.... you're... the Yondaime Hokage!"

Minato nodded. "That's me alright."

Tenten's mouth hung open. "Wait... Naruto is the son of a Hokage?"

Neji smirked at the thought. "Heh, maybe you really were fated to be Hokage after all."

Naruto scowled at him. "I thought I knocked that destiny nonsense out of your thick skull."

Tenten noticed something else. "Who's the old woman?"

Kakashi smiled again. "Ah... Chiyo of Suna. She claimed she was all the backup we needed."

Chiyo laughed. "You bet I am!"

Gai shook his head. "We need to focus! Let's get started, now!"

--

The leader shook his head. "Sasori, Deidara, deal with the ones outside. The rest of you, scatter."

--

Pakkun sighed. "I'm not going to be much use from here on out, so I'll skedaddle."

Kakashi nodded in response. "Good work, Pakkun."

As Pakkun disappeared in a cloud of smoke, Gai turned to Kakashi. "So, how do we take this out?"

Minato spoke up for him. "_Gofu Kekkai_ is created with five tags with 'kin' written on them placed around the vicinity. To remove the barrier, you have to remove all of the tags at the same time."

Kakashi nodded. "That about sums it up. Neji."

Neji nodded back, and activated his Byakugan. ".....found them. On top of a rock about five-hundred meters north-east of here... On the trunk of a tree on a riverbank, three-hundred-and-fifty meters south-east... On a rock wall six-hundred-and-fifty meters north-west... and on a tree in a grove about eight-hundred meters south-west of here."

Gai took out a small radio piece. "If that's the range, we'll use these, then. We'll be able to use Neji's directions over the radio to find them, and then use them to coordinate their removal."

Tenten nodded as her radio was put in place, the radio itself wrapped around her neck and an earpiece where it ought to be. "Radio placement, ok!"

Gai turned to Kakashi. "My team is faster, so we'll go. The frequency is one-seven-four. Wait for our message!"

Kakashi tapped the radio around his own neck. "I'll be waiting..."

Gai pumped his fist. "Team Gai! Let's go with the full power of youth behind us! Scatter!"

As they disappeared, Zabuza sighed. "Seriously... the power of youth... what's up with that?"

Haku giggled again. "Maybe you don't get it because you're _old_."

Zabuza grunted. "If I'm old, then explain to me what the heck Yamamato-sotaicho is?"

--

Neji landed next to his tag. "Lee, a bit farther south."

Lee nodded as he spotted it. "Got it!"

Tenten spoke next. "Same here!" 

Gai's voice crackled over the radio. "Alright, then. Remove the tags!"

Kakashi ripped the tag off of the boulder, and immediately applied an explosive tag. As he jumped off, Zabuza took the sword off of his back and jumped at the boulder, and with several sword slices several cracks appeared in the boulder. The explosive went off, and the pieces were all blown inwards.

Gai heard the explosion through the radio. "Looks like we were successful." He turned when he heard a noise behind him (which was lower down the rock wall). Some... thing, made out of the rock the wall was made of, was coming out of the ground. "Neji."

Neji grit his teeth. "Here too." He took a fighting stance as the material rising from the ground took on color and shape, turning into a clone of himself.

Tenten swore. "What's with this?"

Lee steeled himself. "Perhaps it is a trap of the enemy's..."

Gai nodded in agreement, even though the only one who could see him was his clone. "It seems that, should the barrier fail, this trap activates to further frustrate the ones trying to gain entry."

Neji shook his head. "Going this far... these are some people."

--

As everyone entered into the cave, many of their eyes (or just an eye in Kakashi's case) widened as they saw what was inside- two Akatsuki members, a normal looking blond and a squat, hunchback looking man, were waiting for them, and the blond was sitting on Gaara. Next to the blond was a large, grey bird. Near that stood... well, Gaara's ghost. His chain was broken. Deidara smirked at the sight of so many. "Well, well, shinigami... if you're here to take this guy's soul, you're just in time!"

Naruto grit his teeth. "How could you...!" His gaze turned to Gaara. "Gaara, I... I'm sorry we didn't get here in time..."

Gaara nodded. "Naruto? You are... a shinigami?"

Naruto forced a smile. "Y-yeah... I'm sorry you died, but... hey, the afterlife isn't so bad... and you can always come back as a shinigami like we did..."

Deidara rolled his eye- the other one was hidden beneath his bangs. "Well, if you don't mind, we're going to be leaving now."

Naruto glared at him. "And why should we let you?!" 

Minato put a hand on Naruto's shoulder. "Naruto... it is not our place to avenge Gaara. Our job is to make sure he passes on. Avenging him is up to Kakashi and Chiyo, if they so choose."

Gaara shook his head. "It's... alright. Let them go."

Deidara patted Gaara's corpse on the cheek. "Yeah, you heard the man, let us go, un."

Naruto glared at him, and began expelling reiryoku. Deidara's eye widened. "What the...? You feel that, Master Sasori?"

Sasori nodded. "It seems shinigami are not to be trifled with..."

Naruto took a step forward. "At the very _least_, give us the body. _Now_."

Deidara smirked. "And if I say no?"

Naruto began to dash towards them, but was held back by Minato. "Let me go, dad! I'm going to rip them apart!"

Minato shook his head. "I can't let you do that, Naruto."

Deidara began grinning. "You hear that? The Yondaime Hokage has a son! Oh, joy, maybe I'll get to kill two birds with one stone. Iwa would call me a hero if I did, un! Well, if I hadn't betrayed them and all that, un."

Naruto growled, and began emitting as much reiryoku as he could. Sakura let out a gasp as she collapsed under the reiatsu Naruto was emitting. Minato scowled. "Naruto! Stop this right now!" However, Minato's eyes widened when Naruto's yellow reiryoku began turning red. "N-Naruto! You need to stop this, before...!" Naruto swung his arm, and Minato was repelled by a shockwave.

Naruto held out his hand in front of him, and the red reiryoku concentrated there, as well as right next to his sword sheath. A moment later, there was now a sword with a white-and-gold weave hilt and a golden, V-shaped tsuba in his hand, and a pure white sheath was at his side. He held the blade towards the two members of Akatsuki, and put his hand on the back of the blade. He heard a familiar voice in the back of his head, though it sounded... more human, if he had to put words to it. "**Say my name, boy! SAY IT!**"

Naruto grit his teeth. "Hunt, Zorraluz!"

There was an explosion of reiryoku, and everyone had to shield their eyes from the harsh red light. When it was over, not one person was not staring in shock at Naruto. He had gained some kind of white , bone like armor over his body. There was a chest plate, four long pieces of armor hanging from his waist, leg armor that covered his feet, shoulder-plates, and armor on his arms and hands. The armor on his limbs ended in claws. There was more armor, forming a band that covered his forehead and the sides of his face, that had two protrusions that jetted backwards at the top corners. Minato knew what they were- ears. Fox ears. Naruto turned to his father, and he could see that his eyes had turned red, his pupils had slitted, and the whisker marks on his cheeks were far more pronounced.

Naruto growled, which sounded unnaturally beast-like. "**I'll be right back**."

Deidara's eye widened when he saw Naruto disappear. He didn't even get to swear before he was kicked in the head towards Sasori, and both became a tangled heap some distance down the cave.

Minato swore as he pulled out his zanpakuto and traced his finger along the blade. "Strike, Kyudenmaru!" The blade shifted into its secondary form, and in a flash Minato was between Naruto and Akatsuki. "Naruto! We're not allowed to kill, remember?!"

Naruto snorted. "**Then I'll beat them to within an inch of their lives and make them wish for ****death**."

Deidara got back up again. "Geez... what is this kid, un?"

Minato sighed. "You guys might want to get out of here while you're still alive."

Deidara patted his robe. "Saved by the Yellow Flash... if I was still an Iwa-nin, they'd never let me live it down, un!"

Sasori grunted. "Let's get out of here before you give the kid more reason to hate your guts."

Naruto snarled at his father. "**Why are you letting them go?!**"

Minato sighed at his son. "Because... Gaara told us to, remember?"

Naruto seemed to calm down at this, and he stared at the ground as Deidara and Sasori boarded the giant bird. "**...I...**"

They were interrupted when a hole in reality tore open by the giant bird, causing everyone present to freeze. Zabuza groaned at the sight. "Don't tell me... another Menos?"

However, this time the hole was much smaller- just large enough for a person to step through. Indeed, that is exactly what happened, as a white-clad boy walked through. Minato analyzed the boy- he was probably about Naruto's age. He had on what looked like an inverse of the shinigami uniform- it had white with black lines. He even had black socks and white sandals. He had two swords- one of which had a white sheath and a white weave like Naruto's, the other with a black sheath with a blue weave. The blue one was at his right side, and the white one on his left. He had some strange pieces of white material below each dark eye that covered his cheeks, and between the eyes and to the top of his forehead, each with a comma shaped hole in it. His white hair framed his face, and stuck up a bit in the back.

Naruto had yet to turn around, as he was still staring at the floor. The boy spoke. "Ah... what's this I hear about someone using their Resurrección?"

Naruto seemed to recognize the voice, as he whirled around and faced him. "**Sa... Sasuke....**"

'Sasuke' seemed to regard Naruto for a moment. "....Naruto? I can't tell whether you're a shinigami or an Arrancar..."

Minato tensed at those words. "You're an.... Arrancar?"

Sasuke looked over Naruto's head at Minato. "...Is there some relation between you two?"

Naruto clenched his fists, making sure not to cut himself with his own claws. "**Sasuke.... you're... human...**"

Sasuke smirked. "...Sort of. It's a long and complicated story, I assure you."

Naruto had tears in his eyes. "**I... was told that... you were...**"

Sasuke's smirk disappeared. "A Hollow? Yes, yes I was. And technically still am, too."

Zabuza growled at the sight of the boy. "What's going on here? The only human Hollows I've ever heard of are Vasto Lorde class menos... and then there's the fact that you don't have an entire mask on..."

Sasuke glanced towards Zabuza. "You seem familiar.... ah, you two are... Zabuza and Haku. Long time no see. Oh, and old Kakashi, too."

Haku stiffened at Sasuke's gaze. "How can you be so... yourself, despite being a Hollow?"

Sasuke smirked. "You know, everyone always asks me that... I don't know how, I just am. As for Zabuza's question... I am an Arrancar. A Hollow that has removed part of its mask in order to gain more shinigami-like form and abilities."

Naruto gulped. "**So you're still a Hollow then...**"

Sasuke turned his gaze back to Naruto. "Well, your appearance says... so are you. After all, I was sent here to investigate an Arrancar releasing his zanpakuto... and the only one here who fits the bill is you."

Naruto gazed down at himself for the first time since he had released Zorraluz. "**I'm... a Hollow...?**"

Minato sighed. "I think it's more the case that... what's _inside _of you... has become a Hollow."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "What's inside of him? This I'd like to hear... does this have to do with the red chakra from our battle?"

In a flash of lightning Minato was clashing blades with Sasuke, Sasuke having taken out the blue-weave sword to block. "Ah, I forgot... I'm a Hollow, you're a shinigami, we need to try to kill each other.. well, since you have your zanpakuto released, I guess I'll release mine, as well."

He deflected Minato's zanpakuto, and raised his own above his head. "Shave.... Samehada." The sword expanded, and became a zanbato. Then, many, many blue spikes jutted out of it, all of them pointing down. Sasuke then swung the sword, if it could be called that, down at Minato, who jumped out of the way and avoided the strike as it struck the ground, sending rocks scattering everywhere.

Deidara shook his head. "You know what, forget this crap, I'm out of here, un!" The giant bird flapped its wings, and started flying out of the arena.

Sasuke smirked as he saw them try to leave. "Ah, I've been needing some target practice." He raised his right hand from Samehada and pointed at Deidara and Sasori with his middle and index fingers, and energy seemed to crackle around them. Deidara, hearing Sasuke's statement, turned to face the boy while his bird flew straight.

"Catch me if you can, un!"

Sasuke smirked, and a great beam of purple energy erupted from his fingertips. Deidara's eye widened, and the bird maneuvered out of the way in time as the beam passed them and flew out the entrance of the cave, striking the far rock wall and creating a large explosion. Deidara stuck his tongue out at Sasuke as the bird left the cave and out of sight.

Sasuke sighed in disappoitment. "I should have made the beam wider.... even a low power cero can wipe out someone who does not now how to reflect it.."

Gaara spoke up. "Why are you doing this, Uchiha?"

Sasuke smirked. "Ah... a Plus... I didn't even notice you there." Sasuke took a step towards Gaara, and in an instant both Naruto and Minato were between the two of them. "Oh? You think you can stop me? Amusing... you are... a vice-captain, correct? Admittedly, you are the most powerful shinigami I've ever faced..." He pointed Samehada at them, still smirking. "...but do you really think you can take me on?"

Zabuza interrupted them. "Hey, brat... where'd you get your hands on Samehada? And how the heck is it a zanpakuto?"

Sasuke glanced towards Zabuza. "I took it off of some shark-man. I think his name was Kisame... He didn't need it anymore after I ate him. As for its zanpakuto status, I believe this sword came into being when some blacksmith came across the method for forging physical zanpakuto here in this world... but since this blade was masterless to begin with, it attaches to the one it believes deserves its power most. Since I defeated its old master effortlessly, it serves me now. Now, may I get around to annihilating you or is there more you want to talk about?"

Zabuza smirked. "Well, there is one last thing I want to say... Silence, Kasumi!" His zanpakuto suddenly exploded into mist, which hung around his body. Zabuza charged Sasuke, who merely smirked. "Mist? Some things never change..." However, his thoughts were on something else. _There's obviously a trick to it... or else his zanpakuto would not have disappeared..._

Minato grit his teeth. "Zabuza, stand down! He's too far above you!"

Zabuza stopped in his tracks, and the mist with him. He clicked his tongue in annoyance. "Great... well, we elected you team leader for this, guess I have to listen..."

Sasuke sighed. "I think I've wasted enough time here... My mission was to find the Arrancar who dared release in this world, and bring him back for a punishment... I think they'd be far more interested in learning that a _shinigami_ of all people has acquired an Arrancar's zanpakuto."

Naruto drew his original zanpakuto. "**Sasuke! You think I'm going to just let you go when I can purify you here and now?!**"

Sasuke chuckled at the thought. "You, purify _me_? That's a laugh. Besides... what if I told you I _like_ being a Hollow?" He placed Samehada over its sheath, and in a flash of light it was back in its sealed form. He then slid it into the sheath, a small clink signifying that it was in place. Then, he grabbed hold of the other sword with his right hand, and drew it from its sheath. He pointed it at Naruto. "I could take you on right now even with your Resurrección... What makes you think you'd be able to take me on with mine?"

Naruto grit his teeth. "**Why you-! I'm gonna purify you right now!**"

Naruto was about to take a step forward when he was blasted back by some manner of concussive force. Sasuke clicked his tongue. "Look, they're really expecting me back now, so see you later. Oh, and say hi to Sakura for me, will you?" The same hole Sasuke had came through opened once again, and he stepped through it. Naruto grit his teeth as Sasuke sheathed his sword yet again and gave a lazy salute. "See ya."

Naruto swore as the hole closed, and his yell echoed across the cave. "**SASUKEEEEEE!!!!**"

--

Everything was going back to normal- Sakura had woken up, Minato had taught Naruto how to reseal his zanpakuto, Team Gai had come back, and Naruto was about to perform his first konso by sending Gaara to Soul Society. However, Chiyo had other plans. "Wait! I want... to try something first."

Naruto blinked as he looked at her. "Eh? Try something?"

Chiyo nodded, and walked over to Gaara's corpse. She laid her hands on his chest, and began concentrating chakra into her hands. Naruto could see the chain on Gaara's spirit body begin to lift and point towards Gaara's body. He watched in amazement as link after link began to form in mid-air, and the chain slowly grew towards Gaara's body. Gaara, possibly understanding what was going on, walked over to his body and kneeled next to Chiyo. "...you don't have to do this, you know."

Chiyo smiled. "What's the life of an old hag like me compared to yours.... Kazekage-sama. Sunagakure would have a fit if you came back dead."

Minato's eyes widened. "You don't mean she's..."

Kakashi nodded, his Sharingan eye watching the event. "Yes... she really is..."

Neji frowned. "I can't just believe that such a convenient jutsu exists..."

Chiyo smiled- it seemed... bittersweet. "Of course... it's an equivalent exchange... one life for another."

Sakura's eyes widened. "But then that means that you'll...!"

Chiyo laughed at her. "I was probably going to die of a heart attack one of these days anyways! Gyahaha!"

Sakura shook her head. "This is no laughing matter! Life should not be taken so easily!"

Chiyo gave a sigh while still smiling. "I'm seventy-three, young shinigami. I think the few years I have left are better spent giving Gaara here his next fifty years than living with my brother in some peqace and quiet."

Soon, the jutsu was finished, and Gaara's chain connected to his body. He was immediately tugged back into it as soon as the chain connected, and after that his body slowly opened its eyes. "Ugh... that feels... very weird..."

Chiyo slumped over, and her spirit was forced from its body. The chain shattered into many small pieces that seemed to evaporate instantly, leaving only a few links left on Chiyo's chest. Chiyo sighed. "Well, it's done... now, Naruto, right? I believe you were going to send your first soul to the afterlife."

--

When they were suddenly surrounded by Suna shinobi, they were surprised- not by the fact that ninja from Suna had come to help their Kazekage, but at the _sheer amount_ of them that had come. Naruto's eyes were wide. "There must be a hundred of these guys!"

Temari and Kankuro appeared at the front of the group. Temari smiled at her younger brother. "Hey there... Gaara."

--

**Kasek: **I'm going to end the chapter here. Phew, I can't believe I actually managed to get around my writer's block for this! The WB for this chapter has been killing me for months.

...darn it, I have a bad habit of ignoring Kakashi. First he's not even in the fight with Stormvos _at all_ (I've fixed that, if you care to look), and now he gets one mention during the whole cave thing.

Also, I apologize for skimping out on the battles at the beginning of the chapter. It was the only way I could get out of my writer's block. I've done this same thing before in this very fic- when in doubt, skip it.

Notes:

Naruto has a high-captain class reiatsu, but he can't control it very well sometimes, similar to but not the same as Ichigo. Whereas Ichigo has very little control over it, Naruto has at least moderate control because he's been trained to control reiryoku since a young age. An adjuchas menos is said to be equal to a vice-captain in power, so Naruto's reiatsu was more than enough to frighten Stormvos away.

Speaking of- reiryoku=spiritual energy, reiatsu=spiritual pressure.

This is pre-Aizen, so Sasuke is a natural-born Arrancar. Also, I wish I could draw so I could show you, but the pieces of mask under Sasuke's eyes are supposed to make him look like Itachi somewhat.

Naruto's regular zanpakuto- Bet you guys hate me for not revealing it, huh? Care to guess what its shikai form looks like?

Zorraluz (Light fox)- Named after the fact that the Kyuubi's Yang energies lie within Naruto. Gives Naruto armor with claws and enhanced speed and strength just like the old days when he drew on the Kyuubi's power. Just how strong this release really is remains to be seen. Yes, this means that the Kyuubi within Naruto has turned, not just into a Hollow, but an Arrancar.

Kasumi (Mist; different from Kiri=Mist)- Mist-related zanpakuto. Abilities are hidden for now ;p

Samehada (Sharkskin)- Come on now, you guys know this thing's abilities. Bet you can't wait to see its Bankai.


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: I own neither Naruto nor Bleach.**

**Kasek: **Ah, a couple of people complained about my writing style in the last chapter (one person outright flamed me- my first flame! *makes smores*), so I'm going to go back and make some changes before the next chapter gets posted. Also, please note here that I am fully capable of writing differently, it's just... I dunno. I have an overwhelming compulsion to put people's names before they speak, instead of afterwards like other people do. I'm mildly autistic, so that's probably the reason why.

Anyways, I was actually already writing this chapter when ... (that's what they put as their name) wrote this review.

_OK, Here's the deal, I am kinda interested with this story as i love bleach  
and naruto, but what is going on? sakura? You havent explained how she died.  
Please, can you clarify that. That is all i have to state now. Please take  
into consideration i'm reading on to find out how she died. _

So, here you go for everyone who's been waiting since chapter 2 to find out.

--

**Chapter 8/Omake chapter**

Sakura shivered in her sleep. It was happening again- a dream of that fateful last mission.

It had been a mission with Team Eight- more specifically, Team Eight minus Shino, who was staying home for additional training from his family. It was the first time she had seen Hinata since Naruto's death- she could immediately tell the difference between this Hinata and the old one. When Sakura had greeted her, the response was a cold and distant "Hello, Haruno-san."

After a short but uncomfortable silence, Team Eight's sensei, Yuuhi Kurenai had finally shown up and began to explain the mission. It was a C-rank- deliver a scroll to Kumogakure, or more specifically, an outpost of Kumogakure. They left as soon as she was done explaining.

It seemed like an easy enough mission. Get in, deliver the scroll, get out and back home. Unfortunately, it seemed that Sakura would always have her C-ranks go awry. After they had crossed the border, they were attacked by a team of five Kumo shinobi in the forest. Apparently, they were after Hinata. The first one to attack died just as swiftly when Hinata thrust a palm onto his chest, sending chakra into his body and ripping his heart to shreds.

The others instantly began their own attack patterns. One used a Doton jutsu that separated Hinata and Sakura from Kiba and Kurenai, and it went downhill from there. Three of the shinobi went after Kurenai and Kiba, while the last one- who looked to be the leader- went after Sakura and Hinata. They knew they were outmatched, so they ran for it. The dream itself started here.

--

Sakura panted as she ran from the man. He was tall and muscular, with short, spiky brown hair and a beard. He was apparently rather slow in the speed department. He cursed as another of his shuriken was dodged by Hinata, who had her Byakugan activated. "Stay still, Hyuuga wench!"

Said Hyuuga girl frowned, but said nothing. They kept running from the man, but they knew that they could not outrun him forever- he probably had jonin level stamina, while they were mere genin. It wasn't long before they reached a cliff, and the man trapped them between the cliff and the forest. They peered over the ledge- the cliff wall was rather smooth, with only a couple pieces of rock sticking out here and there. Down at the bottom were many rocks, apparently gathered there by the river that flowed through the center of the valley. He grinned at them. "Nowhere to run, Hyuuga wench..."

Hinata spoke for the first time in this encounter. "Is that the only insult you know? I've heard worse from my father."

The man growled, and pulled a sword off of his back that had gone unnoticed by Sakura until now. "I wasn't told you_ had_ to come back alive you know... or even in one piece. I was just told that alive was preferable for breeding, and that as long as the eyes were intact, it didn't matter too much."

Sakura was disgusted at the thought. "_Breeding_? She's human too, you know!"

He snorted as he seemed to notice Sakura for the first time. "You think I _care_? We're shinobi, human life has no value to us. Wait, I forgot, you're Konoha genin, the lowest of the low even among genin. Feh, if human life is so precious, why don't you attack me to defend her?"

Her lip hurt as her teeth dug into it. "Why you..."

Hinata shook her head. "Don't let him provoke you. He can easily kill us both. There's no sane way for us to defeat him."

Sakura looked at her white-eyed teammate quizzically. "No _sane_ way?"

Said girl shifted her head to the side slightly before putting her gaze full-on the jonin again. Sakura got the message. _Yeah, like he'd ever fall for that..._

The jonin laughed as he advanced towards them one step at a time, and licked the back of his blade. "...Maybe I'll have some fun with you girls first before disposing of you."

Sakura's eyes widened at the implications. That sick-! She drew a shuriken and let it fly straight towards him. He merely tilted his head and the shuriken missed entirely. The man laughed at her incompetence. "You should've aimed for my body, that way I'd have to expend some energy dodging." Sakura would've sworn if she was that kind of person. As it was, she already felt like a rat cornered by a cat. The big, tiger-like variety.

She watched as Hinata grunted, and charged the man. The man smirked. "If you want to die so badly, why didn't you say so?" He slashed at her, but she stayed slightly out of reach. He frowned, and slashed again. And again, she stayed an inch out of his reach. He grit his teeth, and began moving forward as he slashed again and again. Each time, Hinata managed to avoid it while stepping back. Sakura blinked. Was Hinata... she was!

Sakura decided that there was no time to waste, and immediately ran into the forest. The man sneered as he watched her go. "Heh, looks like it's just you and me now, wench..." They continued what they had been doing, all the way until Hinata was at the cliff edge. He pointed his sword at her throat. "How about you give up?"

She merely narrowed her white eyes. "How about... I jump off this cliff instead."

His own eyes narrowed at the remark. "You wouldn't."

Hinata spat in his face. "I do not fear death. It would only mean I would join the one I once held precious."

The jonin growled as he wiped the spit off of his face with his free hand. "Why you little...! If that's how you're going to play it, I'll make sure I kill you before you fall!" He raised his sword arm high, ready to strike for the kill. However, Hinata jumped backwards, and the man's eyes widened in horror as she fell. "NO!"

He looked over the edge, and was relieved to see her hanging on to the cliff wall with her hands. "Heh... you had me worried for a second there."

Those proved to be his last words as Sakura rammed him from behind with a full body tackle, which, since it had caught him flat-footed, had enough force behind it to push him off of the cliff and to his death. Unfortunately, this had the unintended side-effect of sending her barreling off of the ledge as well. Hinata reached out with her left hand and grabbed Sakura's own outstretched hand as she passed the white-eyed girl. Sakura grunted as she slammed into the sheer rock wall. She looked around for a piece of rock to grab, but she gulped when she realized there wasn't any. "H-Hinata... do you think you're strong enough to pull me up?"

The blue-haired girl shook her head. "It's taking almost all of my strength to keep from letting go."

Sakura bit her lip again. She remembered Hinata's words from before. "...let go."

Hinata's eyes widened. "What?!"

Sakura inhaled. "Let go. If we stay like this, we're both going to fall. Besides... I like what you said earlier. Hope you don't mind if I steal your line for myself..." She closed her eyes for a moment. "I do not fear death- it would only mean I would join the ones I once held precious." She opened them again, and smiled at Hinata.

Her white eyes looked... sad. "I wish I could believe what I said... it was only talk."

Sakura chuckled. "Still, it's a good line... see if you can get it on my gravestone."

Hinata's eyes widened when Sakura yanked back on her arm, causing the white-eyed girl to let go of her.

This was the part of the dream that seemed the most surreal. The fall... the long, silent, nearly blissful fall. And then it all ended with a sickening crunch.

--

Her eyes opened with a bit more force than necessary as soon as it was over. She groaned as she sat up in her sleeping bag. What time was it...?

Minato appeared next to her. "Ah, Sakura-kun, you're awake. It's time to go- we need to get back before someone decides to check up on us in Konoha. Wake up Naruto, will you?"

She nodded as Minato walked away, and turned towards Naruto, who was sleeping a small distance away from her. She sighed- she still hadn't told him about how it had happened. But maybe... one day...

--

**Kasek: **And there you have it. This is actually what I've had in mind since I first killed her off, so don't think I made it up as I was writing it. Yes, I realize this is abominably short compared to pretty much every other BLEACHed chapter, but meh.

Morcalivan7 pointed out that they apparently forgot they can stick to surfaces with chakra. YES, YES THEY DID. THANK YOU FOR NOTICING AND POINTING OUT A HUGE FLAW IN MY STORY. Look, everybody just ignore that, alright? If someone else complains, I'll edit in that the wall curved inwards, and thus there was no wall to stick to within reach.


	9. Chapter 9

**Kasek: **LAME CHAPTER IS LAME -sob- This is a transitional chapter between story arcs. I need to do some planning, 'cause I looked at my outline and realized that, aside from really key plot points (that aren't for some time), I'm out of ideas. I think I might take the crossover a bit deeper into Bleach territory next chapter... if you know what I mean. Which you should at least be able to guess. Anyways, on with the chapter (LAME CHAPTER!!!!!)

**Disclaimer: I own neither Naruto nor Bleach**

Namikaze Minato sighed as he waited in Tsunade's office with the other shinigami, plus Tsunade. Today was the day that the shinigami were supposed to report to whoever Soul Society decided to send down to them to listen to said report. Naruto gulped as he put a hand on his white zanpakuto. "You're sure I shouldn't have just left this behind? They don't need to know, right?"

His father sighed again. "I received a zanpakuto from my half of the Kyuubi, so it's only natural that you got one too. We can say that the white sheath is from it being the yang half of the Kyuubi being sealed inside of you." The young boy nodded, and didn't say anymore. Minato looked around at the assembled shinigami. "Remember our story- there was trouble with Adjuchas Menos outside of the city limits. No casualties, very little property damage. We managed to chase them off. They appeared at separate times. The zanpakuto manifested itself when I got hurt. Any questions?" Nobody dared say anything. "No questions? Good."

They finished up just in time, as the doors signifying a portal to Soul Society appeared and slid open, and all were surprised when Uchiha Itachi walked through. Naruto noted that he now wore thin, black glasses. Tsunade glared at him. "What are you doing back here, Uchiha?"

Itachi sighed. "I came to apologize... and to explain myself."

Tsunade raised an eyebrow. "Explain yourself? How can you possibly justify slaughtering the Uchiha clan like that?"

The Uchiha glanced towards Hiruzen. "I certainly hope the one responsible doesn't mind if I do... considering that they're the one who ordered me to do it in the first place."

Naruto was shocked as he followed Itachi's gaze to Hiruzen. "Old man...?"

Said ex-Hokage sighed. "You're the one who suggested the order in the first place, Itachi-kun..."

To say Naruto was confused was an understatement. "What order? What's going on here?"

Itachi glanced towards the young Namikaze. "As I said, let me explain. You see... the Uchiha were planning a coup d'etat. If they had gone through with it, it would've plunged the world into another shinobi war. I couldn't just let that happen, so I... suggested, to Sarutobi-san and his advisors that they be... eliminated. I even volunteered to be the one to do so."

A scowl appeared on Hiruzen's face as he nodded in agreement. "It's... true, I'm afraid."

Itachi continued. "I was actually surprised you didn't know, Tsunade-san, as as Hokage you are obligated to look through all of the Hokage-only files."

She sighed as she leaned back in her chair. "I would've remembered seeing something like that... I guess they've been removed altogether. Probably my advisors' doing..."

A voice piped up- it was Sakura. "Umm.... why are you wearing glasses? You weren't wearing them before."

The Uchiha chuckled at the innocent question. "The simple answer is that my contacts... broke. Anyways, I believe that it is my job to do the interrogating. Did any Hollows attack the village?"

Minato pinched the bridge of his nose. "Well... you see... they didn't attack the village itself, but there were two attacks by Adjuchas Menos..."

Itachi's eyes widened behind his glasses. "_Two_ of them? Why would they attack like that?"

The blond ex-Hokage shook his head. "I don't know for sure... this _is_ a high-reiryoku concentration area. As much as, if not more so than Karakura Town in the other world."

The young Uchiha continued with his line of questioning. "Did you defeat them?"

Again, it was Minato who answered. "Not exactly... they each retreated before we could finish them off."

The Second Division vice-captain nodded at that. "I see...did they give their names? Adjuchas Menos are intelligent enough to have them..."

Minato's frown deepened. "Helrood Stormvos and Bancyning."

Itachi nodded. "I'll make sure to research those names at a later date..." He looked around at all of the shinigami present, and his eyes settled on Naruto- or more specifically, his second sword. "Ah, why does young Naruto-kun have a second zanpakuto? He didn't have one last time I was here."

Naruto's father swallowed, and spoke. "It... manifested itself when he saw me get hurt fighting Stormvos. We believe it to be a manifestation of the beast inside of him."

The barely-an-adult Uchiha nodded again. "And... the color?"

Young Naruto noticed his father flinch momentarily- fortunately, Itachi's eyes were on the zanpakuto. "That, we believe, is a result of the sealing of the beast- I sealed its yang energies into Naruto, and its yin energies into myself."

Itachi nodded for a third time. "Ah, so that explains your own second zanpakuto... I've been curious, but never enough to ask. Well, if that is all..." He paused for a moment, making sure that there were no interjections. "...then I shall report back to Soul Society on this matter."

He turned around and drew his zanpakuto, and stabbed the air with it. The door to Soul Society reformed, and a black butterfly flew through it. Itachi nodded to Naruto before he walked through it, and it closed behind him, fading as it did so until it disappeared. Tsunade sighed, and took a big gulp out of a sake bottle she had produced from nowhere. "So, what now?"

--

Naruto and Sakura chatted animately as they walked down the near empty street. They were not currently on duty- Sakura being a medical shinigami and Naruto still needing training-, so they were merely walking around to see if they could find any shinobi they knew. Naruto was currently recalling a time when a girl his age had confessed to him.

"...so I told her she was nice and all, but not only wasn't she my type, I didn't even know who she was!"

Sakura giggled. "Geez, Naruto. You sure were popular at the Academy, weren't you?" 

The blond moaned. "Now I know what it must have been like for Sasuke..."

A sigh escaped Sakura's lips at the thought of the young Uchiha. "I wish... I could have seen him..."

Naruto frowned as he stared intently at Sakura's face. "Well... he didn't look... _too_ different. I mean, sure, he had white hair, and those weird mask pieces sort of made him look like Itachi, but..."

A voice called out to them. "Hello, Naruto, Sakura."

They looked to the side, and saw... somebody, leaning against a tree. He had on a hooded, light-colored jacket that covered his hair but not his hitai-ate, as well as a second, black jacket underneath with a high collar that covered everything below the eyes. The eyes themselves were covered by small, black goggles. Naruto tilted his head in confusion. "...why do I feel like I should know you?"

Sakura's green eyes widened in recognition. "Ah... could it be... Shino?"

The young Namikaze's eyes also widened when he realized that she was correct. "Whoa, you're right! It is Shino!"

A nod from 'Shino' affirmed who it was. "It is good that you recognize me. Your stay in the afterlife has not diminished the memories of your life."

Naruto grumbled to himself. "I say that wearing that getup makes it hard for anyone to tell who you are..."

Sakura turned her body so she was facing Shino fully. "So, I guess the village knows about us now, huh?"

Another nod from Shino. "All of the shinobi know, seeing as they are able to see you. I was doubtful at first, but Tsunade-sama was able to prove Sandaime-sama's identity with very little doubt. Also, my kikaichu detect no chakra from you, so you cannot be shinobi using a henge. Tsunade has also demonstrated your invisibility to normal people, and since there was no genjutsu involved, that also proves your status as spiritual beings."

A smirk found its way onto Naruto's face. "Geez, you've got all your bases covered just like you used to."

Another voice entered the conversation. "Shino, you're early! Oi, who're the kids with the swords? I don't smell them at all."

Sakura and Naruto turned around and saw something that astounded them- the sight of Kiba riding on what appeared to be a much larger than remembered Akamaru. Kiba had long switched out his hooded jacket for a leather one. Naruto pointed at Akamaru while taking a step back. "A-Akamaru?! He's huge!"

Kiba blinked at what he saw. "Huh? Naruto? So it's true you came back from the dead? Man, you're as short as ever. Guess dead people don't grow."

Sakura shook her head. "We're still dead... and even dead people grow old, it's just at a much slower rate."

The Inuzuka boy groaned as he rubbed his hitai-ate. "Yeah, yeah, shinigami and all that... guess that explains why I can't smell you. Hey, you guys planning on saying hello to Hinata? She should be along any minute."

Both Naruto and Sakura's faces changed to looks of horror, for different reasons. Naruto rubbed the back of his head nervously. "Well, um... oh, would you look at the time, I have to meet my dad for some training."

Sakura bowed deeply. "I apologize, I must be going as well."

They stood there for a moment, perfectly still, and then they ran as if the hounds of hell were after them. Kiba blinked as he watched them go. "...what was that all about? I can understand Sakura, but Naruto?"

Shino shook his head. "...I do believe Sakura told Naruto about Hinata's feelings for him."

Kiba chuckled. "Yeah, that would do it."

"Do what?"

The normally tan face of the Inuzuka paled, and his head turned to face none other than Hyuuga Hinata. Her long hair was being blown by a small breeze, and her eyes were narrowed at Kiba. Her arms were crossed over her jacketed body in annoyance. "Well?"

Kiba gulped. "It's... it's nothing really..."

He was glad when she did not press the issue. "If that's the case, then we should get to training immediately." He nodded, and the three of them (four counting Akamaru) left to go train.

--

Naruto made a rude gesture in a random villager's face, and laughed when he got no reaction. "Man, that never gets old."

His pink-haired companion did not seem amused. "What if one of them was a shinobi in disguise and got mad at you?"

Naruto shrugged. "Not like they can cut me in half or something like that."

They heard a voice from behind them. "How troublesome... Naruto, I thought you were the type to strive for attention, not enjoy a lack of it."

The young Namikaze grinned as he turned around. "Hey, Shikamaru! What are you up to?"

Said Nara sighed as he leaned against the wall. "Right now? Worrying the villagers by speaking with someone who isn't there."

Naruto chuckled at the thought. "Yeah, that's the risk you take when you talk with us, huh?"

Shikamaru sighed again, and glanced at them from the sides of his eyes. "Yep... so, are you guys off duty or something?"

Sakura nodded. "Yes... I only have to react to injuries, and Naruto is off for today."

The Nara boy rubbed his neck. "I'm on a small lunch break... I have to sort through all of the applicants for the Chunin Exams..."

A frown slowly settled on Naruto's face. "The Chunin Exams, huh..."

Shikamaru nodded. "Yep... you know, Tsunade-sama posthumously made you a chunin."

Naruto's eyes widened in disbelief. "What?! Sakura, you never told me about that!"

The young Nara chuckled. "It was after Sakura died... she made you and Sakura chunin for valor or something like that. After all, a lot of power was thrown around at the valley, and Sakura _did_ take out a jonin."

Sakura smiled at the thought. "Well, I mean, it's not like we can do anything with the rank now that we're shinigami..."

"Oi, Shikamaru! I've got your lunch for you!"

Everyone turned to the source of the voice to find Chouji walking towards them. Naruto identified him by his face and cheek marks- his hair had grown much longer, and he was wearing a variant of samurai armor with not as much armor around the waist and no shin guards. Naruto gave another grin at Chouji. "Hey, Chouji! Long time no see!"

The 'somewhat-chubby' Akimichi's eyes widened. "Naruto? Sakura? So it's true that you guys are ghosts?"

Sakura nodded. "Yes, it is..."

Chouji nodded in understanding. "I see... do you guys, you know, eat?"

The grin on Naruto's face got even wider. "Only if you have spiritual powers. Which all shinobi have, so you're safe."

Chouji wiped his forehead in a gesture of relief. "That's good... I was worried I wouldn't be able to eat in the afterlife. What kind of heaven would it be without food?"

Naruto chuckled at Chouji's train of thought. "Yeah, I mean, no ramen? Seriously, I'd hate it."

This time it was a female voice that called to them. "Chouji you idiot, you're late! What are you doing hanging out with... with..." Her voice trailed off as she suddenly recognized Sakura. Sakura herself gulped, as he knew that this was probably going to be emotional.

"H-hey... Ino..."

Ino walked over to Sakura and got kneeled in front of her. The pink-haired girl could already see tears in her eyes. "Geez, Sakura... you... haven't changed a bit..."

Sakura gave a short nod. "Y-yeah... you've changed, though. Your outfit's a bit more daring..."

A small smirk appeared on Ino's lips, but it was merely a facade. "Heh... and your outfit's totally modest. What, did you actually land a guy or something?"

A deep blush covered Sakura's face. "N-no! This is my uniform!"

Ino smiled at her. "Heh... a loser even in death, eh, Sakura?"

Sakura scowled. "I could very easily land a hottie if I wanted to! Naruto is considered prime boyfriend material in the afterlife, you know!"

She heard a chuckle from Ino as Naruto blushed. "Naruto? Prime boyfriend material? Well, I've seen pictures of his dad, so I guess I can see where someone would be coming from if they knew about him..."

Sakura smirked, and started boasting about Naruto, to the boy's embarrassment. "Namikaze-fukutaichou is considered the second-most-handsome of all of the shinigami, so of course 'future Naruto' is going to have his own fanclub."

Naruto coughed. "Uh, hello? Right here, you know."

As Shikamaru muttered 'Troublesome', there was a 'swish' of rushing air, and the young ones found Namikaze Minato standing in their midst. He smiled as he looked at Naruto. "Ah, there you are, Naruto. I've got some training for you to do!" He picked Naruto up by the back of his shirt, and after waving to the others, disappeared without a trace, Naruto in tow.

Ino blushed. "...and you say there's someone _more_ handsome than him? I can die without regrets now."

--

The Akatsuki leader narrowed his eyes in thought. He had just listened to Sasori and Deidara's report, and had already seen Zetsu's recordings of the battles. Though Zetsu's mechanical half said he himself could see nothing of the battle besides the actual attacks- flashes of lightning, torrents of fire and water, trees suddenly sprouting large holes- the man could see every bit of it, and it was... unsettling. These spirits... from where had they come? They surely had not just... popped into existence. Their powers were very much inhuman. He would need to find out more about them, but... how could he get his hands on spirits?

A blue-haired woman walked onto the ledge he was sitting on, towards the top of the very large tower looking over the high-tech city. "Pain? There are some people claiming to be shinigami who want to speak with you."

He could almost feel his mouth twitch- some god that was higher than him had obviously decided to smile upon him.

--

**Kasek: **Dun-dun-dun! Pain meets the shinigami! Sorry I'm keeping what happens between them a secret at this point. Besides, it's just some relatively no-name shinigami for a smaller source of spiritual power (though I would think Pain generates enough reiryoku to constitute a village in and of himself- I guess he suppresses it). You'll get to see what Pain has in store for the shinigami at a later point.

I was kind of stuck with the reunion scene, so I just had Minato perform the plot-no-jutsu (usable even while dead!) and take Naruto off to train. I apologize for this chapter being so LAME, I mean, the Ino scene should have been more emotional, and the shinobi, even if they've been prepped, seem a little nonchalant about speaking with dead people... it's just one big mess.

Dang it all... I just found an old plot outline for this story, and it had some seriously epic stuff for the first meeting with Akatsuki. Like, Hollow Sasori, and Gaara meeting the Sandaime Kazekage. Shame. Maybe I'll go back and rewrite it, but I don't know if I want to put that much effort into it.

Here's an omake for those who bother to read the author notes!

**--**

**My Contacts... Broke.**

Itachi and Soifon had just come back from the living world when all of a sudden Soifon kicked Itachi in the back of his head. Itachi's eyes widened in shock, allowing his contacts to fly from his eyes. A moment later, and Soifon had _shunpo_'d to his side and blasted the contacts with a fireball _kido_. Her glare was venomous, but seeing as Itachi's sight was pretty bad now, it had little effect. "You have five seconds to explain yourself."

Itachi stood at rigid attention despite his head hurting like never before. "I was ordered to do it by my Hokage for the peace and safety of the world."

Soifon raised an eyebrow. "Ah... my apologies for the contacts. I know it took you a while to save up for them."

The Uchiha shook his head. "I suppose it is but a small additional price to pay for my actions on top of my death. I'll just have to dip into my savings again to get some glasses for now."

--

So yeah, that's the explanation for Itachi's new glasses.


End file.
